Is junior officer investigating against his senior fair?

POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY COMMISSION

 317 complaints lodged in 2019 against police officials

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Even a layman will say with conviction that the investigation of a case by an SI (sub-inspector) against any of his senior police officers is less likely to get the desired results. This and many such lacunae in the Assam Police Act, 2007 prevent the Assam Police Accountability Commission from becoming a potent body to bring discipline in policing in the State where as many as 371 cases were registered against police officials in 2019 alone.

The Annual Report 2019 of the Commission laid in the State Assembly on Thursday revealed many areas in the Assam Police Act that need amendments.

The Assam Police Accountability Commission was formed based on the Assam Police Act, 2007. However, even now the State government hasn't given many powers that are crucial for the Commission to become a potent body to bring policing in the State right on track. Even now, the Commission is not powerful enough to act on its own in many an area. A glaring example is that the Commission doesn't even have its own office complex. It has to work in a cubbyhole. And this is despite repeated pleas made to the authorities concerned.

Through its annual report, the Commission has mentioned a number of amendments which the government needs to bring in the Assam Police Act. What's in practice now is that an SI is the investigating officer when an FIR (First Information Report) is filed against a higher-level police officer in a police station. However, in such a situation the risk of unfair investigation is always high.

In order to ensure fair investigations of cases against higher-level police officers, the Commission wants an amendment to the Act to make police officers, who are a rank higher than the accused police officers, investigating officers in such cases. It further says that in the event of the accused police officer being in the rank of ASP (Additional Superintendent of Police) or above, the cases should be investigated by the CID under the direct supervision of the DGP or the IGP.

When departmental proceedings (DPs) go on against any police officers, the Commission is kept in dark on the progress of the investigation. The Commission wants amendment to the Act so as to make statutory provisions in it for providing quarterly status report on DPs against police officers to the Commission.

Faulty investigations and perfunctory or willful negligence of police stations are tagged in the Act as 'misconduct'. However, the Commission wants that such acts on the part of police stations should be tagged as 'serious misconduct'. The Commission wants stringent action against such acts as it feels that common people are the direct victims of such willful negligence in investigation or faulty investigation. Moreover, such lapses let guilty people go unpunished and the investigations fail to reach their logical conclusions.

Even now district accountability authorities are a nonstarter under the Commission. For the residents of remote areas it's a problem to lodge complaints against police negligence. Such people have to come to Guwahati just to lodge such complaints.

The Annual Report (2019) of the Commission says that as many as 317 complaints were lodged against police officials in 2019 alone – 148 against police inaction, negligence and delay in investigations; 38 against perfunctory investigations; 32 against misuse of power; 30 against harassment and threat; 27 against non-registration of FIRs and 21 against blackmailing and demanding money.

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