LAHORE: The Lahore police higher-ups have taken up with the IGP a plethora of problems the investigation wing has been facing to improve conviction rate against hardened criminals.

A detailed report makes revelations about the huge amount of cost of investigations the investigation officers (IOs) charge from the complainants or accused persons. It also highlights the shortage of the equipment and high workload on the staff of the Lahore police investigation wing.

The report also proposes a set of amendments to the rules and establishment of a Legal Affairs Unit and a Financial Fraud and Forgery Unit. The report was presented to IGP Rao Sardar Ali Khan at the committee room of the Central Police Office (CPO). Senior officers including the Additional IGPs investigation and operations, and DIGs investigation and operations attended the meeting.

Lahore DIG Investigation Shahzada Sultan presented the report which highlights acute shortage of vehicles. He says 56 vehicles are required to distribute the logistics according to workload of the police stations.

IGP acquiesces into most demands presented in report

“As per standing order (No 1, 2020), an amount of Rs867m is required to be sanctioned as cost of investigations but instead only Rs56m are approved and there is shortfall of Rs811m,” the DIG said.

He proposed that for better chain of custody and improved convictions, a location-finder catalogue, separate interface for evidence deposit room, evidence storage room, evidence management system integrated with Police Station Record Management System (PSRMS), Move-in & Move-out Printable Indents (compatible with Register-19) are necessary so that the evidence be kept till the decision of the case.

Mr Sultan proposed a witness proofing system to reassure the witness about his/her role in the proceedings, to acquaint himself/ herself with prosecutor, familiarising him/her with the court room, explaining the process of cross-examination etc,.

During the year 2021, an amount of Rs281.7m was incurred on the production of under-trial prisoners before the courts, he said. “In order to save this amount, it is proposed that an amendment may be made in Section 352 of the CrPC to incorporate the production of under-trial prisoners before courts through video-link technology,” the report suggests.

The DIG says existing way to manoeuvre the system must be done away with by introducing software amendments. He further says there has to be a filter available to search all previous convictions to assist in enhancement of punishment or conviction.

He proposes that a dedicated Legal Affairs Unit having the facility regarding witness-proofing, virtual production of accused and witnesses, prosecution liaisoning, implementation wing, judgment analysis wing and special court appearance should be established at district level for monitoring the prosecution of cases.

“A Financial Fraud and Forgery Unit headed by an inspector at division level should be established under the supervision of SP/Investigation to investigate and decide the fate of all such cases within seven days,” he said, adding that the unit would help reduce financial crime workload. The DIG says there is an acute shortage of 214 rooms for the officers of Lahore investigation at the police station level.

Talking about the report, a senior official said the IGP had issued necessary instructions to address most of the demands on an emergency basis. The IGP directed that in the first phase 300 1Os & 2,000 lower subordinates preferably intermediate HCs should be provided to the investigation wing. Subsequently, he said, an additional 300 IOs and 100 lower subordinates should be transferred to the investigation wing.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2022