All rape cases to be probed in 30 days: Police to Judges

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19

All rape cases in Haryana are to be investigated within 30 days, and probe in molestation cases is to be completed within 15 days. Besides this, the DNA reports in rape cases will be released in just 10 days.

This, and much more, was told to the Punjab and Haryana High Court Judges, besides all district and sessions judges of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, by the Haryana Police during a state-level conference organised on Sunday morning at Chandigarh Judicial Academy. The event was aimed at working out solutions faced by the judges in their day-to-day functioning.

The gathering was told that Haryana was in the process of streamlining the scientific investigation system to cut down delay in sending reports to the police investigating crime against women.

Taking a note of the assertion, Chairman of the High Court Computer Committee, Justice Rajesh Bindal, said the details could also be made available online for monitoring purposes. The police top brass would, that way, know the exact status. “The entire data could be sent online for monitoring. Information, such as time taken by a test, would be available straightaway,” Justice Bindal said.

Referring to the time schedule, Chief Justice Krishna Murari asked the police authorities to ensure the instructions on releasing the reports were applicable to the pending cases as well. “Go back and make the order applicable to old cases also, as chances are that the instructions would be followed in cases taken up after the issuance of directives and not the ones before it,” Justice Murari asserted.

The judges were also told to handle such cases with utmost sensitivity, and take them up on priority, as such matters attracted hue and cry. The directions came after the Chief Justice and other High Court Judges were told that delay in receiving FSL reports was an issue. A judicial officer said the reports in some cases were not received more than one-and-a-half years. As a result, criminal trials, otherwise complete, remained pending for the want of FSL reports. The judges were told that in Gurgaon alone no less than 165 cases were pending for this reason alone.