Investigation Procedure

Police Investigation and The Public :

         An Officer-in-charge (SHO) of a police-station is empowered to investigate any cognizable offence by the section 156 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). SHO can also also depute his subordinates to investigate the facts and circumstances of the case under the section 157 of Criminal Procedure Code. The investigating-officer can summon any person to the investigation.The privileges of investigating-officer are given in the sections 160-175 of CrPC and the restrictions on investigating-officers while investigation of a case are provided in various guidelines and directions provided by court and the government from time to time which will be discussed in our posts later on.Today we will discuss about the steps followed by the investigating agencies during investigation of a case and to make people aware of the procedure of investigating agencies which can help to reduce the gap among the police and the general public :

How First-information-report(FIR) can be registered ?

         The complainant can register a complaint with the police in the following ways :

      > By telephone

      > By post

      > By visiting police-station

      > Through online SMS or email

      After receiving the information, Officer-in-charge of the police-station verifies the contents of the first-information-report (FIR) and decides whether the contents of the information are of a cognizable offence or non-cognizable offence.

What is Cognizable offence ?

         Cognizable case is the case in which police registers an FIR in the FIR register and investigates the case and can arrest without warrant. The offence committed in a cognizable case is called cognizable offence.There are two types of cognizable offences i.e. bailable and non-bailable.

Bailable :

          The offences in which police is bound to grant bail to the accused(accused is a person who has committed some offence) are called bailable offences.The bail is granted on production of surety(surety is a person depositing property or sum of money or pledge to police/court for the release of accused) to the accused.In case of bailable offence, the bail is granted on the spot/police-station and is not produced before the court.So don't be confused why the accused has been released by the police on the spot/police-station, it simply means he must have committed an bailable offence which is cognizable.

Non-bailable :

          The offences in which officer-in-charge of a police-station can not grant bail to the accused except under special circumstances. The officer-in-charge of police-station is bounded by law to produce the arrested person before the nearest judicial magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the magistrate's court.In case of the non-bailable offence, if the accused appears before the court or is produced by the police before the court, it is the privilege of  the court whether to grant a bail to the accused or not ? If bail is not granted, accused is either sent to the police-custody/remand or to the judicial custody/remand.

Police-remand :

         People are generally afraid of the term "Police-remand"and think that remand  means only the physical and mental torture but it is not true.Now,a lot of restrictions have been placed the investigating agencies and no torture is allowed by law.Any type of torture is an offence in itself and a lot of other agencies keep vigil over the police.Police remand is only meant to cooperate the police during investigation so that investigating officer may complete his investigation successfully. It is also important to mention here that no disclosure by the accused before the police during police remand is admissible before the court of law if circumstances does not corroborate the admission.During police custody/remand,accused is kept in the police lock-up.The police-remand can be of maximum 14 days.

Judicial-custody/remand :

          When an accused appears before a court or is produced before court after arrest, magistrate decides whether the accused will be sent to the police custody for police remand or to the judicial custody for the judicial remand or to grant him bail.During police/judicial custody of the accused, if the case is under investigation, police is supposed to complete his case within 60 or 90 days and present the case for trial in the court.With the permission of the court,investigation period can be increased from 60 or 90 days.The officer-in-charge of police-station is is not bound to present the case in the court within 60 or 90 days, if accused is on bail.During judicial custody, accused is kept in judicial lock-up and is produced before the court after every 14 days.

Difference between Police-lock-up and Judicial-lock-up :

          It is difficult for a common man to find a difference between police-lock-up and the judicial-lock-up.The lock-ups which are built in police-station and are maintained by the police department are called the police-lock-ups whereas lock-ups built in the jail complex are called judicial lock-ups and are maintained by the jail authorities. During police custody, accused is in the control of the investigating officer and is kept in police lock-up whereas in judicial custody,accused in the control of the  jail authorities and police is not authorised to interrogate the accused without prior permission of the court.The same accused can not be interrogated twice under same offence, if he has been sent to judicial custody.

         The maximum period of custody can be calculated in the following way,if the case is under investigation with the investigating agency :

       Police custody+Judicial custody= 60 or 90 days.

What is a Non-cognizable offence : 

            Non-cognizable offence is an offence in which police can neither register an FIR, investigate nor affect arrest without the permission of the court.When such an information is received in police-station which is non cognizable, officer-in-charge of police-station enters the contents of the information in the register no. 2 of the police-station which is called Daily-diary of the police-station and not in the register no.1 which is FIR register.Police  has no power to investigate the non-cognizable offence without the permission of the court.

           A common-man approaches the police-station with a complaint against a person or a group of persons with a mind set that after receipt of his complaint, police will arrest the accused person and will forward his case to the court for trial, without understanding the difference between cognizable and non-cognizable offences. This creates a confusion in the mind and results in an increase in gap between a common-man and the police.We will discuss more topics on procedure of investigation, rights of public and topics mentioned in other pages.