Bhanu P Lohumi
Shimla, September 1
With a majority (79 per cent) of proclaimed offenders (POs) in Himachal from other states, the police have requested the High Court to issue directions to lower courts to impose strict conditions for granting bail to the accused.
As per the police record, there are 1,453 POs in the state of which 1,233 are involved in criminal cases and 220 in Negotiable Instruments Act cases. The maximum number of 313 POs are in Mandi district followed by Shimla (308), Solan (157), Baddi (133), Una (103), Kullu (96), Kangra (89), Bilaspur (74), Sirmaur (68), Hamirpur (45), Chamba (42), Kinnaur (19), and Lahaul and Spiti (6).
Of the 1,233 POs, 949 are outsiders (747 from other states, 189 Nepalese and 13 foreigners) and only 284 are Himachalis.
In a letter to the Registrar General, High Court, DGP Sanjay Kundu had requested the HC to issue directions to the lower courts to impose strict conditions for granting bail to accused. He said credentials of persons appearing as surety should also be verified thoroughly so that impersonation of sureties could be prevented.
Observing that there is surety module software prepared by the National Informatics Centre in the case information module for the subordinates courts, there is still no mechanism with the court to verify the genuineness of the surety.
The Supreme Court had issued notice to the Union government and the Unique Identification Authority of India to find out possibility of a mechanism for verification of surety by judicial officers for its authentication as a part of good governance, he added.
Courtesy: Tribune News Service