IGP told to set up special teams to arrest culprits of unsolved crimes

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the provincial police chief to set up investigation cells and special teams in every district of the province to deal with 156,077 criminal cases, including 19,064 heinous crime cases, which have been pending for the last 10 years due to the failure of the police to arrest the culprits.

The direction came during a hearing of an application with regard to the police failure to arrest the culprits in the pending criminal cases. Following the court order, the Sindh police has filed a report mentioning that 156,077 FIRs are pending under A-Class, wherein the culprits are to be arrested and the crimes yet to solved.

The additional prosecutor general and the SSP Crime Branch submitted that there were 19,064 cases of heinous crimes pending in different districts of the province and sought time for filing a bifurcation report.

The SSP Crime Branch submitted that Sindh’s inspector general of police (IGP) had issued directions for the establishment of victim support centres all over Sindh, and accordingly a notification would be placed on record at the next hearing.

A single bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar observed that the matter had been pending since December 19, 2018, and repeated directions had been issued to the Sindh police with regard to a mechanism for fixing cases submitted under A-Class by the magistrate and the establishment of district cells for the arrest of the accused persons in 156,077 untraced cases.

The court directed that special teams be constituted for solving heinous crime cases and the teams consist of an officer not below the rank of sub-inspectors and investigations be carried out.

It observed that the IGP would ensure that sufficient efforts were made and a progress report was filed on the arrest of the accused persons. A representative of the law department contended that the law department was not aware of the Sindh Criminal Courts Rules 2012. However, the provincial law officer and the representative of the law department submitted that the Sindh government would examine the same and proceed further for legislation in accordance with the law.

The court directed the provincial law officer to submit an interim report on legislation with regard to the arrest of the accused on May 15. At the previous hearing, the high court had observed that no investigation could be said to have been completed unless the culprit was identified; therefore, a report under A-Class would never be admission of the completion of the investigation.

It had further observed that it appeared that we have such a large number of criminals around us without their identity and how there can be a possibility of peace in the society which allows free existence of evil in such numbers.