No probe yet into plaints of false FIRs lodged since 2017

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 16

While the Congress government set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe the alleged false FIRs registered on political grounds during the SAD-BJP rule from 2007 to 2017, no action has so far been taken on 224 similar complaints filed since the formation of the Capt Amarinder Singh-led government in the state.

Hearing in serious cases

The process for approval of regulations is underway. But the authority will be hearing complaints only in serious cases of custodial deaths, murders and rapes, and only if officials of the rank of SSP and above are accused of misuse of office. NS Kalsi, Police complaints authority

These complaints, regarding the registration of alleged false FIRs at the behest of politicians or influential persons, are being shuttled from one office to the other, but no one has taken up these for an inquiry.

The complaints kept piling up with the Home Department over the past several months after which officials sent it to the two-member Justice Mehtab Singh Gill commission of inquiry which was formed to probe false FIRs.

The commission, in its 41st interim report on 3,530 complaints heard so far, mentioned in a column about the 224 complaints returned to the Home Department due to lack of jurisdiction. Officials of the department said the complaints would have to be taken up by the complainants in a court of law or before senior police officials.

Justice Mehtab Singh Gill (retd) told The Tribune that the complaints were returned as these were regarding FIRs registered after July 31, 2017. "The commission is authorised to take up complaints from March 2007, when the SAD-BJP rule began to July 31, 2017, when the Capt Amarinder Singh government set up the commission after coming to power in March 2017."

The Punjab Police Complaints Authority is another body meant to take up the cases, but it remains a non-starter even three years after the formation of the government. Though the government set up the authority last October and appointed former Additional Chief Secretary NS Kalsi as the chairman, it is yet to pass regulations governing its working.

from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2WJ7bB5