Due to incomplete information related to previous offences committed by the criminals given in the chargesheet filed by the Police, offenders do not get adequate punishment from the court. Uttarakhand Director General of Police BS Sidhu said this while chairing a meeting with Police officers to review charge sheets of various crime related issues on Sunday. He directed them to take necessary steps for convicting the accused.
After reviewing chargesheets of different crime cases, he said that the investigators had not mentioned previous crimes committed by the the accused in the chargesheet. Due to insufficient information in the chargesheet presented in the court, criminals had not got maximum punishment from the court.
While highlighting section 75 of IPC, he said that whoever having been convicted of an offence punishable under chapter XII or chapter XVII of section 75 of IPC with imprisonment for a term of three years or upwards is guilty of an offence punishable under either of those chapters with like imprisonment shall be subjected to such subsequent offence to imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years.
Sidhu also observed that the offenders who were booked under Gangster Act were getting bail easily from the court. According to him, offenders get bail from the court because of insufficient information mentioned in the chargesheet about previous offences committed by the criminals and lack of investigations conducted by the investigators. According to him, it has been observed that those criminals who easily secured bail from the court are involved in committing other crimes in the state.
Criminals do not get maximum punishment because police station in-charge or investigators do not follow section 437 (II). The DGP has directed the district officers to ensure that their subordinates are mentioning previous crimes committed by the offenders in the charge sheet before presenting it before the court. This will help the police department to facilitate maximum punishment to the accused from the court. He said he would review charge sheets of various crimes on monthly basis.