Gurugram: Two days after the Haryana Home Minister sought action over delay in probe, the state police Wednesday ordered the immediate suspension of 372 investigating officers (IOs) for not taking appropriate action on FIRs for over a year.
The Additional Director General of Police (Crime) wrote to the Commissioners of Police at Gurugram, Faridabad, Panchkula and Sonipat and Superintendents of Police at Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat, Hisar, Sirsa, Jind, Rewari and Rohtak directing them to issue the suspension orders.
IOs are generally police officers of the ranks of head constables, assistant sub inspectors, sub inspectors, and inspectors.
The Print has a copy of the Wednesday order issued by the ADGP (Crime).
Sirsa (66), Gurugram (60) and Yamunanagar (57) have the maximum such officers. Others in the list are Faridabad (32), Rohtak and Karnal (both 31), Ambala (30), Jind (24), Hisar (14), Panchkula (10), Sonipat (9), Rewari (5), and Panipat (3).
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij told ThePrint that he has been telling police officers to expedite investigation of cases in public interest. “I told them that the cases where investigations were pending for a long time must be taken on priority because people have been suffering and come (to me) with complaints,” he said.
“In May, I was informed that there are 3,229 cases in which final disposal has not been done for more than one year by investigating officers. People are running from pillar to post, and cases are not getting disposed of. We sought an explanation from the officers regarding the pending cases, and 372 officers did not give a satisfactory explanation,” he explained.
Vij had written Monday to DGP Shatrujeet Kapur ordering suspension of 372 IOs who he said had not given ‘satisfactory’ explanations. He further ordered their cases be transferred to DSPs for disposal in a month. “Otherwise, action will be taken against these officers also,” the minister wrote.
On Tuesday, the DGP held a meeting with the Haryana police brass and instructed them to promptly address public complaints and also prioritise impartial investigations.
Kapur told the officers to make random calls to complainants to get feedback. “These calls will be used to assess the performance of police stations and officers, establishing a rating system,” he told them.
The police chief asked senior officers to review calls made through the feedback cell, focusing especially on those dissatisfied with police actions as a part of the feedback mechanism. “The senior officers should inquire about the reasons behind the dissatisfaction and ensure transparent work processes through call recording,” Kapur told the senior police officers.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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