RAWALPINDI, Jan 10: As many as 14,855 cases were registered with 24 police stations in the district in 2008 and the police have yet to complete their investigation in 6,437 cases and submit charge sheets in the courts, it has been learnt.

Slow investigations by police are not only prolonging trails, but overcrowding jails and putting undue burden on the parties.

According to the data obtained from the district courts the prosecution branch received 14,855 FIRs but the police could only get completed the investigation in 8,418 cases and submitted the charge sheets in the office of district public prosecutor.

The prosecutor office sent the charge sheets in 7,963 cases to the courts of law while it returned 455 with objections to the investigation officer for re-submission.

The investigation officer is bound to complete the investigation in a case and submit the report under Section 173 of Criminal Procedure Code within 14 days of registration of the case but the legal provision in this regard is rarely practiced, said Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi a Supreme Court lawyer and adept in dealing with criminal cases.

The senior lawyer said the general slackness on the part of police was the main reason in the delay of completion of investigations in the stipulated time and the prolonged custody of the accused on judicial remands.

The victim of the delay in the investigation is the accused who is denied the natural right of early decision of his case and he is kept in the judicial custody for long times waiting for the police to accomplish its task of investigation, the lawyer observed while talking to Dawn.

The complainant in the cases waiting conclusion of police investigation get frustrated and often the evidence in the favour of the complainant is either destroyed or it becomes irrelevant for the accused, said Saukat Siddiqi. He said a court of law could deny judicial custody to an accused due to delay on the part of the police and the investigators had no other option but to let the accused go.

The lawyer who had been practicing the law for the last 25 years said the delay in the completion of police investigations had been one of basic reasons for the over-crowded Adiala Jail putting unwarranted burden on the national exchequer.

The figures showing the cases pending investigations needed further verification and must have included the cases registered in the last two months of the previous government said Regional Police Officer (RPO) Nasir Khan Durrani when contacted.

The chief officer of Rawalpindi region police however said there were three main reasons for the delay of the investigation by his department. First investigation officer is over-burdened with other tasks such as security and surveillance and he is often transferred to other police stations making it difficult for him to complete investigation in pending cases.

Secondly the police had to get chemical reports from Lahore especially in murder, robbery and narcotics cases, which further delay the investigation and thirdly the accused involved in the criminal cases often get pre and post arrest bails from the courts halting the police probe in the cases.