345. Surveillance of criminals belonging to gangs. [§ 12, Act V, 1861].
(a)Surveillance should be by gangs. If a member of a gang is found absent, an enquiry slip shall be immediately issued to all police-stations within whose jurisdictions any of the members of the gang resides, stating the facts, enquiring whether any of the other members were absent at the same time. Similar steps are to be taken on the occurrence of a crime in which a known gang is suspected of having been concerned. In cases of dacoity, there should be no delay in issuing these enquiry slips. They shall be issued immediately after the first information has been recorded and the fact noted in the general diary, giving the number and date of the slip and the officer and the name of the police-station to which the slip has been issued. It shall be the duty of the officer receiving the slip to take action without delay, and to inform the officer who issued the slip of the result of the enquiry. He shall enter in his general diary the date and hour on which he received the slip and the date and hour on which he returned it. In the event of any of the members of the gang being found absent, the fact and the number of the enquiry slip will be noted in the history sheet. All slips shall be carefully filed by the issuing officer, as evidence of absence of gangs of known criminals simultaneous with an outbreak of crime is valuable evidence in bad livelihood cases. As much use as possible shall be made of village Panchayats, union boards and chaukidars to assist in the surveillance over gangs, and they should be encouraged by liberal rewards from the Chaukidari Fund to report the absence of a member of a gang or of the visit of any strangers to members of a gang.
