Madras High Court
V.Amaravathi vs The Superintendent Of Police on 24 October, 2018
Author: N.Anand Venkatesh
Bench: N.Anand Venkatesh
1
BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT
DATED : 24.10.2018
CORAM
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.ANAND VENKATESH
Crl.O.P.(MD)No.18827 of 2018
V.Amaravathi ... Petitioner
Vs.
1. The Superintendent of Police
Karur District
2. The Deputy Superintendent of Police
Karur District
3. The Inspector of Police
Karur Town Police Station
Karur
4. The Inspector of Police
CBCID, Karur ...Respondents
Prayer: This Criminal Original Petition filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to
transfer the investigation in Crime No.922 of 2013 dated 30.10.2013
pending on the file of the third respondent to the fourth respondent or to
any other competent agency and proceed the investigation in accordance
with law.
For Petitioner : Mr.P.Dhanasekaran
For Respondents : Mr.K.Suyambulinga Bharathi
Government Advocate (Crl.Side)
http://www.judis.nic.in
2
ORDER
This petition has been filed seeking to transfer the investigation pending before the third respondent in crime No.922 of 2013
2. The petitioner had given man missing complaint before the respondent police in the year 2013. The son of the petitioner was found missing from 21.10.2013 on wards. The petitioner had approached this court earlier by filing Crl.O.P(MD) No.10622 of 2017 seeking for transfer of investigation on the ground that the respondent police are not taking effective steps to find out the son of the petitioner and respondent police are not properly enquiring into the case by questioning the persons against whom the petitioner has specifically made allegations. This court directed the respondent police to file a status report and accordingly status report was filed before this court on 23.10.2017.
3. This Court after considering the status report filed by the respondent police, thought it fit not to transfer the investigation which was conducted by the respondent police. However, in the said order, liberty was given to the petitioner to approach this Court after a period of six months if no progress is shown by the respondent police in the investigation.
4. The learned counsel would further submit that even after earlier order was passed by this Court on 27.10.2017, there has been absolutely no http://www.judis.nic.in 3 progress in this case. He would further submit that the petitioner has strong suspicion against the one Bharathi and the learned counsel would further submit that this person has not been examined by the respondent police. Left with no other option the present petition has been filed to transfer the investigation.
5. The learned Government Advocate(Crl.Side) on instructions would submit that the respondent police is trying their level best to find out the son of the petitioner and till date the respondent police are not able to trace him. He would further submit that Bharathi against whom the petitioner had suspicion has already been examined by the respondent police. The learned Government Advocate produced the entire CD file stating that the respondent police have examined the said Bharathi and also some other accused persons against whom there is suspicion. CD file also reflects that the fact that the respondent police are trying their level best to find out the missing person by enquiring from various angles.
6. This Court does not find any ground to transfer the investigation at this stage. In a man missing case, this Court has also given direction to the respondent police as to the manner in which the pending First Information Report is to be dealt with. The relevant portion of the order is extracted hereunder:
4.This Court had an occasion to deal with a case where the Police closed the man-missing case and filed a report as http://www.judis.nic.in “undetected”.4
Taking note of this procedure, this Court by an order dated 12.09.2014 made in HCP No.1454 of 2014, after considering the matter in detail and after referring to the relevant Police Standing Orders gave certain directions and the same is extracted here under:
“ 6.This issue had cropped up earlier also before this Court in HCP No.658/2003 and this Court had passed an order on 05.08.2003, directing the police to put in place a procedure for tracking down missing persons,, pursuant to which the Office of the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, issued the following Circular Memorandum:
"C.No.016781/Cr.3(1)2005 Office of the Director General of Police Tamil Nadu, Chennai - 600 004. Dated: 31.1.2005.
CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM Sub: Missing Persons - Certain instructions - Issued Ref: 1) Chief Office Memo in Rc.No.2110/128992/ Cr.II(I)/2003, Dt 27.06.2003.
2) Order of the High Court, Madras, HCP No.658 of 2003 Dt 05.08.2003.
3) Chief Office Memo in C.No.84/CIG/MOB/2003 Dated 13.08.2003.
4) Chief Office Memo in R.C.No. 84/MOB/SCRB/2003 dated 19.01.2005.
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In several cases, Hon'ble High Court of Madras has observed that the investigations relating to Missing Persons are perfunctory. It is therefore necessary to streamline the investigation relating to Missing Persons.
2)It is seen that, during investigations, cases of missing persons, kidnapped, deserters, wanted criminals, escaped criminals, unidentified dead bodies etc., the computerised "Talash" software is not being availed of by the field officers. In order to streamline the process of monitoring and supervision, the following instructions are hereby issued:-
(i) Police Computer Wing (SCRB) will circulate the seven forms (i.e. for Missing, Kidnapped, Deserter, Wanted, Escaped, Unidentified Person, Unidentified Dead body) to District Superintendents of Police and Commission of Police.
(ii) Sufficient forms will be supplied by COPs/SPs to PS.
(iii) Immediately after registering the case, (Missing, http://www.judis.nic.in Kidnapped, Deserter, Wanted, Escaped, Unidentified 5 Person, Unidentified Dead Body), wireless messages should be sent to DSPs, Police Computer Wing, DCRBand Modus Operandi Bureau by the Investigating Officer.
(iv) The SHOs will prepare "Talash" Forms for all cases reported in 2005 and send them to DSPs, Police Computer Wing, DCRB and Modus Operandi Bureau, if not already sent
(v) The IOs will collect Photos of Missing/Unidentified Dead bodies and send it to DSPs Police Computer Wing, DCRB and Modus Operandi Bureau.
(vi) Police Computer Wing will develop a software to match all the seven categories on different parameters, Photographs should also be included. The Dy. Superintendent of Police, Police Computer Wing will submit a project report on this within two months.
(vii) Manual verification should be done in Police Computer Wing forming a Special Team consisting of one Inspector of Police and three Police Constables.
(viii) The circular vide reference third cited is being sent again to all District Superintendents of Police and Commissioners of Police to reiterate the procedure that should be followed strictly.
(ix) Investigating Officer should be Inspector of Police.
(x) Instructions given in the reference third cited above should be followed strictly for reviewing the progress of the cases.
(xi) Special Cell consisting of one SI, two HCs and two PCs should be formed in the Districts to collect relevant details in all the seven categories.
(xii) Monthly meeting by SP should be conducted with IOs and DSPs to monitor the progress of the case.
(xiii) In all the cases of Missing, Kidnapped, Deserter, Wanted, Escaped, Unidentified Person,Unidentified Dead body and, when traced, message should be flashed to DSPs, Police Computer Wing, DCRB and Modus Operandi Bureau.
3) The standardised proforma has been designed to be used in all the cases, is enclosed.
http://www.judis.nic.in 6
4) The consolidated database should be maintained at Police Computer Wing and a search should be done immediately after receiving messages from Districts.
5) The system should be followed with immediate effect. A compliance report should be sent to Addl. Director General of Police, Law and Order on or before 05.02.2005.
6) The receipt of this memorandum should be acknowledged.
Sd/- Director General of Police Tamil Nadu, Chennai - 4."
7. In Tamil Nadu, there are at present 40 Police Districts including 7 Commissionerates, 2 Railway Districts and 31 Districts. Each Police District has a District Crime Record Bureau [for brevity 'DCRB] functioning under the control of a separate Deputy Superintendent of Police in the Office of the Superintendent of Police of the District. The Apex body in the State is the State Crime Record Bureau [for brevity 'SCRB'], which is under the control of an Officer of the rank of Additional Director General of Police. Whenever a FIR is registered under the caption "man missing", the photograph of the missing person and other details are required to be sent by the Station House Officer of the concerned Police Station to the DCRB, which in turn would send the details to the SCRB. The SCRB will host the entire details in the Tamil Nadu Police Website, which can be accessed by any member of the public by logging into www.tnpolice.gov.in and can view the details of the missing person. Similarly, when an unidentified body is found, the police will register a FIR u/s 174 Cr.P.C., take photographs, conduct inquest and will despatch the body for post-mortem to the Government Hospital. The concerned Station House Officer will pass on these details to the DCRB, which in turn will transmit it to the SCRB and these details along with the photograph of the unidentified body will be hosted in the Tamil Nadu police website. In the SCRB, there is a special team of Officers who analyse the cases relating to missing persons and try to match it up with the cases relating to unidentified bodies. This Team has done commendable work and has been able to solve number of cases of man missing. In fact, even in this case, the matching was first done by the SCRB and Cuddalore Police was intimated by them. They have also solved a few murder cases by matching the profile of missing persons with that of unidentified bodies.
15. We have laboured to extract all the extant rules and instructions on the subject, in order to facilitate the legal http://www.judis.nic.in community to properly guide the kith and kin of missing 7 persons when they approach them for help.
16. To sum up:
a) The Police shall immediately register an FIR whenever a case of 'Man missing' is reported and follow the Circular dated 31.01.2005 issued by the Director General of Police.
b) ... ... ...”
5.This Court took pains to give elaborate directions to the Police to follow the procedure as stipulated in the Circular dated 31.01.2005 issued by the Director General of Police.
However, the police is completely unaware of this procedure and they continue to commit the very same mistake in all “man-missing” cases”
7. In view of the above,the respondent police is directed to follow the directions given by this Court and continue to investigate the case effectively and file a final report after completion of investigation.
8. The Criminal Original Petition is disposed of with the above direction.
24.10.2018 Index :yes/No Internet:yes/No aav To:
1. The Superintendent of Police Karur District
2. The Deputy Superintendent of Police Karur District
3. The Inspector of Police Karur Town Police Station Karur http://www.judis.nic.in 8
4. The Inspector of Police CBCID, Karur
5. The Additional Public Prosecutor, Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, Madurai.
http://www.judis.nic.in 9 N.ANAND VENKATESH,J.
aav
Crl.O.P.(MD)No.18827 of 2018
http://www.judis.nic.in 30.10.2018