293. Expenses of witnesses and investigating officers incurred in the investigation of cases. [§ 12, Act V, 1861].
(a)Bills for expenses of witnesses who are not servants of the Crown for diet money and the cost of travelling by railway or long distances by boat or read in the interests of police investigations shall be sent to the Superintendent for sanction and payment. Such expenses should only be incurred in cases of considerable importance.(b)The bills after being passed by the Superintendent shall be paid from his contract contingent grant and the amount made over to the witness concerned, if he is present, or sent to the Superintendent of the district, or to the officer-in-charge of the police-station, in which the witness resides, to be paid to the person entitled to the sum. A receipt for the amount paid shall in all cases be taken from the actual payee.(c)Superintendents, when passing these bills, shall see that police officers have not neglected their duty of themselves going to the scene of the crime and interrogating the witnesses there. The true object of the rule is to provide for those important cases in connection with which the witnesses have to be brought from other districts to identify accused persons or to describe on the spot the progress of events connected with the crime. The bills should be passed and cashed with all possible promptitude.(d)All charges incurred by police escorts on account of travelling and diet expenses of witnesses arrested under warrants issued by Criminal Courts under section 92 of the Code of Criminal Procedure shall be recovered from the Courts.(e)All legitimate expenditure of investigating officers, as well as all necessary expenditure incurred in the investigation of cases which cannot, under the existing rules, be paid from other sources or recovered from the Courts, shall be paid by the Superintendent from the contract contingent grant, and shall be recorded under a detailed head "Police investigation charges."Note. - Clause (e) of the rule covers expenses such as -(i)travelling and diet expenses of witnesses attending police enquiries, who are not required to appear before the Court;(ii)subsistence allowance or travelling expenses of informers and approvers;(iii)diet expenses of chaukidars and dafadars called in from distant beats to help in the investigation of cases; and(iv)hire of conveyances for bringing important personages to the scene of occurrence to help in investigation.
