Seized vehicles at police stations worry cops

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 16

Seized vehicles stashed at police stations have become a headache for the Punjab Police as they do not have enough space to keep them. The vehicles dumped outside police stations, which rot with the passage of time, present an ugly look.

Ironically, the Supreme Court had passed an order in 2010 to all state governments, union territories and DGPs to dispose of all case property material, including vehicles, under provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). However, till now, nothing has been done to dispose of these vehicles. Huge piles of motorcycles could be seen rotting outside various police stations and police chowkis, giving them an ugly look. The space at police stations where seized vehicles are dumped have also become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other poisonous insects.

During the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on October 2, 2014, the vehicles were covered with cloth at a few police stations to give them a neat look. However, after that the ‘cleanliness day’, observed on October 2 every year, remained a low-key affair at these police stations.

As per a police official, a committee, comprising a judicial officer, a police official and an official from the administration, was also formed to dispose of the vehicles. However, not a single meeting had been held in the past years regarding the same.

A large number of these have turned into junk and hold no significance in their cases at all. A police official said these case properties seized by the police occupy enormous space. These gather dust and turn into scrap with the passage of time.

“Until and unless the court allows the Police Department, we cannot dispose of them on our own,” the official said.

The dumped vehicles pose a big problem and the situation at police chowkis is also bad as there was a negligible space for parking them.

A chowki in-charge said due to work pressure, they hardly found any time to complete formalities to dispose of the junk. Even the owners of such vehicles were least interested in taking them back.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Daljinder Singh said there were a number of problems in disposing of the vehicles. He said a majority of the vehicles belong to accident cases, traffic violations and dowry Act and in a majority of these cases, people do not prefer to take their vehicles back.

He said there should be a law that after a particular period such vehicles be disposed of.