Police investigation is entry point in criminal justice system

Islamabad : Police are the entry point in the criminal justice system and a door for access to justice. If its core function of investigation is compromised due to political interference, vested interest or corruption coupled with inefficiency, it will surely lead to miscarriage of justice at the door, a experienced police officer, believes in scientific investigation, averred.

A serving senior police officer, while talking to ‘The News’, on the condition of anonymity, conceded that there probably are thousands of innocent individuals, both men and women, young and old, who somehow got implicated in some acts of crime and have been handed out different sentences, even from death to life imprisonment or other terms, only because of flawed investigations.

“We need to hire crime investigation experts who should be trained on scientific lines, using latest forensic sciences for collecting evidence to corroborate the facts in any crime. Similarly, for interrogation purposes we need to hire psychologists and psychiatrists to engage with the alleged criminals instead of using ‘third degree’ tactics,” he added.

“We have seen quite experienced young investigators, who wanted to carry out investigations in any act of crime on scientific basis, using forensics to unveil and unearth evidences and applying human psychology with reasoning to get to the bottom of a case at hand.

“Unfortunately such investigators could not sustain long and with the passage of time, abandoned their actual skills and started following the notorious police investigations prevailing in our police stations since colonial times,” the senior police officer said.

“The traditional practice of investigation is to resort to blackmailing in the form of detention of the close relatives of any alleged criminal and even if it does not work the inhuman violence is what the investigators employ to extract confessional statements,” the police officer supervising the investigation section of the Punjab police department, said, adding that a notable number of inexperienced lot of young investigators, misusing their offices, are practicing old tradition of investigation and misguiding the courts of justice.

As a result, an accused, an overwhelming majority of whom are poor, uneducated individuals, ends up as a ‘proven’ criminal and handed out convictions which range from death by hanging by the neck till death, life imprisonments or other sentences to be served in confinement of jails for years and years for a crime that they have never committed.

There are thousands and thousands of such victims lodged in jails all over the country, awaiting the government to make some meaningful amendments in the prevailing laws, which may help them prove their innocence and get their freedom.

Meanwhile, the former Inspector-General of Police of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Nasir Khan Durrani, pointed out that another major corrupt practice to influence investigations is bribe. “This bribe could start with thou sands of rupees and may end up in multi millions, depending on the severity of case. This financial corruption has frequently impacted investigations, leading to flawed evidence which eventually ends up in weak prosecution,” the former IGP said.

He said that the system of review and revision in the criminal justice system during the course of investigation need to be improved.

“The top most priority of the government should be to change ‘Police Culture’, this ‘Thana-Kutchery culture’ (Police Station and Court culture), completely revamp the police investigation system and separate it from the police department, hire investigation specialists who are abreast with the modern and scientific means and manners of crime investigation and continue training more and more crime investigators in the country,” Nasir Khan Durrani said.

He pointed out that at present the ‘First Information Report’ (FIR) in any case is considered to be the complete case file by the police as well as the judiciary. “This is wrong. The FIR should be considered only as the initial report. At present a whole case is built on the FIR and the changes made in it eventually make the whole thing suspicious. And the courts also consider these FIRs as the basis of any case and because of the faulty investigations the case ends up in a flawed decision,” he said.

About the ‘eye witnesses’ in any case, he said, there is a big importance of eye witness or eye witnesses in any case all over the world. “But the statement of an eye witness or eye witnesses should be brief and authentic in which he or she should narrate only what he or she has seen with his or her own eyes,” he said.

“But in our ‘kutchery and court’ system is overwhelmingly powerful and the touts and mafias have dug their claws too deep in this rotten system. They are openly buying fake professional witnesses who are very well trained to give evidence in the court of law under oath and the judges have no option but to believe their statements and make decision on the basis of those,” the former IGP said.

Another issue, he added, is the credibility of ‘Dying Declaration’, a statement given by a victim just before his or her death. “Usually these ‘Dying Declarations’ are declared not credible on the basis that the dying person could have wrongly implicated somebody for his or her enmity.

Yet another issue is the confessional statements extracted by the use of violence or harassment. “Almost always such statements given by any alleged culprit are denied in the court of law and are set aside by the court as an account taken under duress. So, these are just a few factors, a few of the major factors in fact, which are crippling our investigation and legal system and need to be paid immediate attention with more steps to be introduced for gradual change in the long run,” Nasir Khan Durrani said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Asim Gulzar, when contacted to get his belief in investigation skill, said, “Criminal investigations in Pakistan move from criminal to crime scene which ultimately leads to fabrication of evidence, forced confessions, torture and ultimately acquittals or wrong convictions”.

Investigation under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is defined as the “Collection of Evidence” which in turn requires use of scientific tools and latest techniques, the DIG maintained.

In order to improve investigations, police must shift its focus on crime scene and use scientific methods, ensure chain of custody procedures and secure he evidence to identify the criminal, Asim Gulzar added.

It is high time that investigative function shall be further developed and only certified investigators must be deputed by law to investigate the cases and in case of motivated or wrong arrests, the investigation officer and the department must face the civil damages suits, he concluded.