DailyPost 2751
INVESTIGATOR’S ACCOUNTABILITY / RESPONSIBILITY
In all likelihood you would have never heard this term. If you would have heard anything related to it, you for sure would have no idea as to what is the legal responsibility and accountability of an investigator / investigating or the investigating agency. For all detailed code of procedure and judicial process to keep the investigator in check, in reality more often than we have innumerable instances they running amok or missing the legal delivery by miles. The general feeling which has emerged over the years, is that they have full legal immunity of everything, though it has not been precisely spelt anywhere.
Strictures and adverse remarks in judgements and judicial proceedings have become a part and parcel of investigator’s professional life at the local police level, SITs, state CIDs or specialized national investigation agencies. They seem to have become immune to it as seen from the fact they are being judicially chided endlessly and for decades. You can even term it as a routine official interaction between the wings of the criminal justice system with no improvement whatsoever in attitude and quality of investigation. Which also means there is no respite to the suspect / accused / made suspect and as an extension every single citizen of the country.
Had the investigative agencies been eager enough to implement even half of the judicial directions regarding investigation / lacunae in investigation process, the quality of investigation and conviction rate could have been doubled by now. That would have opened the way for iterative improvement and also good practices to seep in, into our investigative culture. Is it not the investigating agency’s responsibility to be more responsive to law and move in tune with the judicial scrutiny as being told by the courts over and over again; some generic, some specialized and some contextual.
If a child is not able to score pass marks in an exam, he is declared a failure. What is the pass qualifying conviction rate to be achieved for the state police or any specialized investigating agency? Derecognition if not achieved for three consecutive years needs to legally happen. A detailed code of judicial strictures needs to created and action / punishment for each lapse to be meted out to the investigator / investigation agency should be prescribed. Once a judicial stricture enumerated in the code is communicated, action as prescribed has to be taken and communicated to the court that has passed the stricture, which would then be recorded and closed. This is like a permanent black mark on the investigator / investigating agency. If cases of false case foisted or absurd sections applied for fooling the legal system, dismissal can be the only punishment. The same should be the fate for deliberately messing up with the investigation. Deliberate miscarriage of justice cannot be allowed.
NO AUTHORITY CAN RUN AMOK IN A DEMOCRACY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.