State Police Complaints Authority holds Mumbai cop guilty of inaction in case

The Maharashtra State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA), an independent body for looking into complaints against policemen in the state, has referred the second policeman for a departmental inquiry/punishment to a Mumbai police officer for a shoddy probe in a cheating case and closing it stating that the accused are untraceable.

The officer has been identified as M Sankpal, an Assistant Police Inspector of Dharavi police station, who has now retired. According to the order passed by SPCA, the complainant in the case had filed a complaint with Dharavi police station in 2011 against three persons for cheating him of Rs 15 lakh. However, API Sankpal took almost 13 months to register an FIR. The order further states, even after the registering an FIR, the case was closed by the officer after nine months stating in a summary that even though the facts in the complaints are true and correct but the accused in the offence cannot be traced. After repeated complaints by the victim, the case was reopened and another investigating officer was given the charge who arrested two accused in the case.

On hearing both sides, the SPCA panel, headed by retired justice AV Potadar and retired ADG police PK Jain, found that API Sankpal had committed an error in not registering an FIR on time and closing the case after a few months of investigation. "The provision under the Criminal Procedure Code is clear that if the complaint received in a police station in commission of cognisable offence, then the offence should be registered immediately. The first fault of the officer is that he delayed the FIR registration and total inaction in arresting accused. Hence this is a fit case to be referred to the Government for Departmental Enquiry for awarding suitable punishment," said a Senior SPCA officer.