BENGALURU: The state police chief has issued a circular asking all jurisdictional police heads to sensitise the police not to investigate the cases pertaining to non-cognisable offences without getting the orders from the jurisdictional magistrates. This will ensure that guilty does not escape the clutches of the law.
Section 155(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure mandates that “no police officer shall investigate a non-cognizable case without the order of a magistrate having power to try such case or commit the case for trial”. This section was made mandatory to prevent the police from unnecessary arrest or trouble the persons facing non-cognisable offences which are not serious.
The circular was issued following a recent direction of the Karnataka High Court, which found that the police had not only investigated a non-cognisable offence without obtaining orders from the magistrate, but had submitted the chargesheet.
Even the Magistrate has also not applied his mind as to whether such chargesheet can be entertained by the Court and cognizance can be taken, Justice K N Phaneendra, Karnataka High Court, had observed on January 17, 2018 while quashing the FIR and all other proceedings against Nitish Moray, a resident of JP Nagar.
The jurisdictional police investigated the case against Moray, without taking Section 155(2) into consideration and filed the chargesheet. The Magistrate had also taken cognisance of the offences.
Therefore, the High Court had observed, “The court’s hands are tied and there is no room to order for continuation of proceedings except quashing the same due to the illegality in the proceedings conducted by the police.”
Moray moved the High Court by filing the criminal petition challenging the procedural lapses in investigating the case against him.Moray had sent an abusive e-mail to Assistant Traffic Manager, KSRTC, Mysuru Road, on May 1, 2014, for not making proper arrangement of buses as it was a long weekend. The Assistant Traffic Manager had filed a complaint with the Byatarayanapura police, who booked the accused under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the IPC. All the invoked sections were non-cognisable in nature.
The police investigated the case and filed a chargesheet to an ACMM Court, without following the provision under Section 155(2) of the CrPC. The lower court admitted the same. Looking into the lapses on the part of the police, the High Court observed that the accused is getting benefit and though some materials are available against him, due to the illegality committed by the investigating agency, the case has to be ended up in quashing the proceedings in favour of the accused.
Therefore, the Court quashed the FIR and further proceedings and ordered the Director General of Police to take appropriate steps by directing all the police officers in the State to look into the provisions of Section 155(2) of CrPC… “Otherwise, the accused persons who have committed the offences will simply get enlarged or simply get away from the entire proceedings itself”, the court said.The DG & IGP has issued circular to police commissioners and SPs, directing them to sensitize the investigating officers and all jurisdictional police officers about the observation of High Court.