‘Investigation of State Police force separated from law & order’

GUWAHATI: The Assam Government informed the Gauhati High Court that it had notified for the separation of the investigation of the State Police force from its law-and-order wing.

During the hearing of a suo-motto PIL (2/2019), a senior government advocate submitted that a notification has been issued by the State government on May 19, 2023, in reference to the proceedings of this PIL. The advocate said that he would record the notification through an affidavit.

Earlier, in the hearing of the PIL on March 14, 2023, the senior advocate of the government had placed on record a communication dated March 13, 2023, issued by the Secretary to the Government of Assam, Home & Political Department, indicating that a proposal had been made to deploy a minimum of 15 percent of the Unarmed Branch (UB) strength of all ranks in the police stations/outposts to be exclusively assigned for investigation duties and that such officers would not be deployed for any law-and-order duties, except in emergent situations.

The Additional Advocate General, Arunachal Pradesh, submitted that the State of Arunachal Pradesh has imparted training in investigation skills to 84 investigating officers of the Investigation Wing based on the directions given by the Supreme Court. The State of Arunachal Pradesh has also filed an affidavit on March 15, 2023, wherein it has been stated that separation has been made between the investigation wing and the law-and-order wings of the Police Department.

Similar steps have been taken by the State of Mizoram, as has been pointed out by the Additional Advocate General, Mizoram. He submitted that notification to this effect has already been issued and that he shall also be bringing on record an affidavit relating to the Constitution of the Police Accountability Commission.

The Additional Advocate General, Nagaland, submitted that a formal notification for the separation of the investigation and law and order wings of the police has already been issued by the State of Nagaland. The Additional Advocate General further submitted that instead of constituting a separate Police Accountability Commission, the State of Nagaland has constituted a state-level police complaint authority and a district-level police complaint authority.

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