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PART A -- INVESTIGATION
Relation between Police and Magistrate.-- Chapter XIV of the Code of Criminal Procedure contains the provisions of the law regarding information to the Police and their powers to investigate; and the relations of the Police to the Magistrate are therein defined.
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[2. Police can investigate suo motu only cognizable cases.- The Police have power to investigate suo motu only cognizable offences as defined in section 4(f) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898; but under section 202 of the code, a Court may, for the purpose of ascertaining the truth or falsehood of a complaint of an offence of which it is authorised to take cognizance, direct an inquiry or investigation to be made by a Police Officer or by such other person as it thinks fit. The limitations on this power of reference which are described in the instructions as to the examination of complainants should be strictly observed by Magistrates (vide chapter 1-B, paragraph 4).]
3. Police to record information in non-cognizable cases also.-- Section 154 requires that every information to an officer-in-charge of a Police Station relating to the commission of a cognizable offence shall be reduced to writing, and action taken on it under sections 156 and 157. When the information relates to the commission of a non-cognizable offence, the substance of it shall be entered in a book to be kept for the purpose, and the informant shall be referred to the Magistrate. No police officer may, without the express order of a duly empowered Magistrate, investigate an offence not cognizable by Police [section 155 (2)].
4. Procedure of Police on receipt of information.-- Sections 156 to 158 lay down the procedure to be followed by the Police on receipt of information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence, and provide for the submission of reports of such information to the Magistrate having jurisdiction.
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[Daily Station Diary. Action to be taken when Station Police Officer decides not to investigate case.- Rule 22.48 of Chapter XXII of Volume III, of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 prescribes the maintenance of a Daily Station Diary in accordance with section 44 of the Police Act, 1861, and lays down that the Daily Station Diary shall be in form 22.48(1) and shall be maintained by means of the carbon copying process. There shall be two copies. One will remain in the Police Station register and the other shall be despatched to the Superintendent of Police or a gazetted officer designated by the former every day at the hour fixed in this behalf. The Superintendent of Police shall fix the hours at which station diaries shall be daily closed.]
Rules 24.4. (1) & (2) of Chapter XXIV of the Punjab Police Rules Volume III, run as follows:-
(1) If the information or other intelligence relating to the alleged commission of a cognizable offence is such that an officer in charge of a Police Station has reason to suspect that the alleged offence has not been committed, he shall enter the substance of the information or intelligence in the station diary and shall record his reasons for suspecting that the alleged offence has not been committed and shall also notify to the informant , if any, the fact that he will not investigate the case or cause it to be investigated.
(2) If the Inspector or other superior officer, on receipt of a copy of the station diary, is of opinion that the case should be investigated, he shall pass an order to that effect and shall, in any case, send on the diary or an extract therefrom to the District Magistrate for his perusal and orders.
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[5. Distinction between recording of reports under sections 154 and 157, of the Code of Criminal Procedure.- (i) Whereas every information covered by section 154 of the Code must be reduced to writing as provided in that section, it is only information which raises a reasonable suspicion of the commission of a cognizable offence within the jurisdiction of the Police Officer to whom it is given, which compels action under section 157 of the Code, although, of course, a report would be sent to the Magistrate.
(ii) A Magistrate cannot refuse to take cognizance of a complaint which has been duly made to him, on the ground that it relates to an offence cognizable by the Police, and should, therefore, have been made to the Police and not to himself. Failure to so take cognizance amounts to failure to exercise jurisdiction legally vesting in the Magistrate.
(iii) A Magistrate who has taken cognizance under section 190(1)(a) of the Code, of an offence cognizable by the Police may, after complying with the provisions of section 200 of the Code, and issuing his process (if he sees no reason for doubting the truth of the complaint and otherwise finds sufficient grounds for proceeding), give information of the case to the Police Officer having jurisdiction, with a view to his further investigating its facts and circumstances in the manner laid down in section 157 of the Code. In such a case, as is contemplated, the Police Officer would not have to take measures for the discovery and arrest of the offender, as the supposed offender would be known, and a process would have been issued by the Magistrate to compel his appearance; but in other respects it would rest with him to take steps to secure the case being properly brought before the Court, and he would be responsible that the witnesses named by the complainant to the Magistrate were supplemented by any others who might be necessary to complete the case for the prosecution.]
6. Procedure to be adopted by Magistrate when offender is not known to the complainant.-- The *[remarks contained in the preceding paragraph] proceed on the assumption that the complainant to the Magistrate knows, or thinks he knows, who has injured him. In cases of complaint of a cognizable offence against an unknown offender, the Magistrate would have to record, under section 203, that there were in his judgment no sufficient grounds for proceedings. It would also be open to him to communicate to the police the information supplied to him, or to leave it to the complainant either to apply to the Police or to take such other measures as he thought proper for discovering the offender.
7. Procedure of Police when there is or is not sufficient evidence against the accused.-- Section 169 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that if in an investigation under Chapter XIV the Police officer finds that there is not sufficient evidence to justify the forwarding of the accused to a Magistrate, he shall release the accused on bail or recognizance, and shall submit a report through the proper officer (section 173), for the orders of the Magistrate having jurisdiction.
If, on the other hand, the evidence appears sufficient the Police officer must forward the accused under custody, or on bail, if the offence is bailable, to the Magistrate having jurisdiction (section 170).
8. Police cannot detain in custody an accused for more than 24 hours without orders of Magistrate.-- Section 61 of the Code provides that no Police officer shall, under any circumstances, in the absence of a special order of a Magistrate under section 167, detain in custody a person arrested without warrant for a longer period than twenty-four hours, exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Court.
9. Police remands.-- When it appears that the investigation by the Police cannot be completed within the period of twenty-four hours and there are grounds for believing that the accusation is well founded, the Police Officer must forward the accused to the nearest Magistrate, and also transmit a copy of the entries relating to the case in the diary of the Police Station. The Magistrate before whom the accused is brought may, whether he has or has not jurisdiction, authorise the detention of the accused in such custody as he thinks fit for a period not exceeding fifteen days. If he has not jurisdiction in the case, and considers such further detention unnecessary, he may order the accused to be forwarded to a Magistrate having jurisdiction. **[(Section 167 of the Code).]
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[10. Procedure of Magistrate granting remand.- A Magistrate authorizing the detention of an accused person as above must record his reasons for doing so; and shall forward a copy of his order with his reasons for making it, to the Sessions Judge. (Section 167, sub-section (4) of the Code.)]
11. Arrest by Police to be reported. When Police may discharge persons once arrested.-- Sections 62 and 63 require that Police officers shall report to the Magistrate of the district or, if he so directs to the Magistrate of the sub-division of a district, the cases of all persons apprehended without a warrant within the limits of their respective stations, whether such persons ***[...] have been admitted to bail or otherwise, and that no person who has been apprehended shall be discharged except *[on his own bond, or on bail] or under the special order of Magistrate.
12. Control of Magistrate over arrests by the Police.-- The object of these sections is that the Magistrate should promptly exercise authority, if necessary, with regard to all arrests by the Police; and they seem to have been framed with this view that as no person can be released without the order of a Magistrate, except on bail or recognizance, the Magistrate *[and the Police should be responsible if a person is illegally arrested or] remains unnecessarily in custody.
13. Police diary to be kept and sent up regularly.-- Section 172 requires that a Police Officer making an investigation under Chapter XIV shall record his proceedings day by day in a diary. The Magistrate of the district should see that the diary is regularly kept up and that each day's diary has been forwarded to and has regularly reached the Superintendent of Police of the district in course of post, this being the only security against the contents being antedated. ***[...]
14. Duty Magistrates to supervise Police Investigations.-- Magistrates are bound to see that the provisions of the Code are attended to , any departmental practice notwithstanding. The law has provided that the Magistrate should either expressly order (section 202), or receive immediate intimation of (section 157) *[the] criminal investigation that is set on foot in the district, and he is not at liberty to relax the supervision which the law intends that he should exercise.
15. Magistrate must have among his own records the means to supply statistical information.-- From the quarterly statistical returns it sometimes transpires that the Magistrate is not informed of the number of persons arrested by the Police during the month. If the points above alluded to are properly attended to, the Magistrate must have among his own records the means to supply the statistical information; for the reports severally made to him of intimation of the occurrence of an offence (section 157), of there being no sufficient evidence (section 169), of there being sufficient evidence (section 170), must be in writing, and, whatever may be the mode of communication with the Police, must leave a trace in the Magistrate's office sufficient to enable the statistical writer to make out his returns.
16. Police to send to the Magistrate copies of records made under section 165, Cr.P.C.-- Magistrates of districts should also insist on the Police authorities adhering closely to the law laid down in sections 161 to 163 and 165 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. They should see that the Police forthwith sends to the nearest Magistrate, empowered to take cognizance of the offences, copies of any record made under sub-section 165 of the Criminal Procedure Code at the time of making search.
17. Power of Police to summon witnesses and to arrest offenders.-- The issuing of a warrant or summons, properly so called, in criminal cases, is the prerogative of the Magistrate only and no writ from a Police Officer, as such is to bear either of these designation; but, under section 160, any Police officer making an investigation under Chapter XIV may by `order in writing' require the attendance of any person who appears to be acquainted with the circumstances of the case, and such person shall be bound to attend. The arrest of an accused may also be effected by a Police Officer of any rank to whom an order in writing has been issued by the officer-in-charge of the police station; but such processes are never, either officially or in common parlance, to be called `warrants' or `summons'.
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