CrPC amendments clip cops of their freedom to arrest

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Apr 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Arresting a person involved in offences such as cheating, molestation and robbery would not be an easy task for the police officers in the state hereafter as the Police Department has decided to implement the recent amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The fresh amendments restrict the police from arresting a person either on the basis of a complaint or suspicion regarding his involvement in a cognizable offence that warrants punishment up to seven years, without a warrant.
Police sources said that around 90 percent of the cases registered in the state are offences that warrant less than seven years of punishment.
Only crimes such as rape, attempt to murder and murder warrants punishment beyond seven years. However, certain exceptions are provided in the amended law. If a person commits an offence either in the presence of a police officer or if a police officer feels that there is a genuine reason for the arrest, then a warrant is not necessary to arrest the person.
It has been made mandatory that the details of all persons arrested at all police stations in a district be published at the district police control rooms (PCRs) of the respective districts on a daily basis.
DGP Jacob Punnoose has directed all police officers to abide by the amendments that came into effect in November 2010.
“We are in the process of implementing the fresh amendments. As a first step, all the police officials are being made aware of the amendments,” the DGP told Express. The fresh amendments also make it mandatory that a police officer should record the reasons either for arresting a person or not for arresting a person after having received a complaint or information or a reasonable suspicion regarding the person’s involvement in a cognizable offence that warrants punishment of up to seven years.
A notice board should be kept outside the district police control rooms with the details of the persons arrested in the police stations with in the district on that day as well as the previous day.
The name of the police officer who arrested the person should also be mentioned on the board. The station house officers (SHOs) should furnish the details about the arrested persons to the district police control room as well as the District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB), says the amended laws.
The State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) will have to maintain the details of all persons arrested in all the police stations in the state. The DCRBs will have to forward the details of the arrests in each district to the SCRB on a weekly basis.
With the amendments to the CrPC, it has also become mandatory that an arrested person should be informed of his right to give the name of a friend or relative who should be informed of his arrest. Also, an arrested person should be permitted to meet a lawyer during the interrogation, according to the amendment.