SHC concerned over police failure to arrest culprits in 42,000 criminal cases

Asking if there was any possibility of peace in society that allowed culprits at large, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday expressed serious concerns over the non-arrests of culprits in more than 42,357 criminal cases in 11 districts of the province.

The SHC was hearing a criminal miscellaneous application filed against the rejection of a reinvestigation plea by a district and sessions court. The applicant’s counsel had submitted during an earlier hearing that his client had lodged an FIR with regard to injury inflicted on him by some unidentified persons but the police kept the report in dormant by declaring it A-class for want of the arrests of the culprits.

The counsel informed the SHC that when the suspects were identified later on, the district and sessions court was approached for reinvestigation of the case so that the suspects could be arrested; however, the sessions court dismissed the application on the grounds that the order passed by the magistrate was not amenable to the sessions court.

An SHC’s single bench, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, had observed that any report under A-class could not be considered as the legal disposal of a crime FIR as observed by the Supreme Court (SC). The court had directed the Sindh inspector general of police to submit a complete break-up of the A-class cases of the last 10 years.

Following the direction of the court, the AIG legal submitted on Friday a report of 11 districts of the province in which more than 42,000 cases were pending without the arrests of the suspects.

According to the police report, 16,690 cases of untraced criminals were pending in South-II, 13,769 in Korangi and 9,318 in South-I. A total of 117 cases of A-class were pending in Malir, 611 in Mirpurkhas, 199 in Umerkot, 115 in Tharparkar, 368 in Thatta, 230 in Tando Allahyar, 68 in Sujawal, 468 in Jacobabad and 604 in Naushero Feroz.

The officer requested the SHC to grant more time for the submission of details of the A-class cases in the remaining districts. The SHC took notice over non-compilation of cases by the IGP office which was negation of the Supreme Court’s direction in Nasarullah case.

The SHC observed that the submission of such statistics was self-indicative of the fact that police as well as magisterial courts did acknowledge that solution of untraced crimes was pending, yet they surprisingly seem to be enjoying such a state at the cost of their legal obligations which otherwise stood defined in the SC judgment.

Mohammad Farooq, amicus curiae appointed by the court, submitted that the number of untraced cases in two districts of Karachi was alarming. He submitted that the population of Karachi was more than two crores for which the existing number of police force was not adequate. According to Farooq, it was not possible for the existing number of investigation officers to carry out inquiries into a large number of cases.

The SHC observed that even if the Sindh police were short of staff, a financial or other constraint could never be an excuse for the state particularly when such an excuse was at the cost of citizens’ rights guaranteed under the constitution.

The high court directed the DIG police establishment to appear with a complete break-up of the police officers and other force, specifying the number of officers in entire Sindh particularly in Karachi with correspondences, if any, made to the government for establishing police stations because of the widening of city and abnormal increase in its population.

The SHC directed the IGP to submit a complete break-up of remaining pending cases including remaining districts of Karachi as well any initiatives taken so far after the circulation of the SC judgment with regard to the pending cases.

The Sindh prosecutor general and other crime detective agencies, including the Counter-Terrorism Department, Anti-Violent Crime Cell and Crime Branch, were also directed by the SHC to submit details of their pending cases.

The SHC directed the IGP to submit a detailed report with regard to the implementation of the SC judgment in respect of cell established with regard to absconders and their arrest. The high court directed the district and sessions courts to submit reports on the status of A-class cases pending before their respective districts by February 6.