POLICE REGULATIONS, BENGAL. PART 11

  1. —RURAL POLICE.
  2. (a) Dafadars and chaukidars, commonly known as the rural police, are appointed under

the Village Chaukidari Act, 1870 (Ben. Act VI of 1870), or the Bengal Village Self-Government Act, 1919 (Ben. Act V of 1919). They are subject to the provisions of these Acts and to the rules contained in the Chaukidari Manual or the Union Board Manual, Volumes I and II. Every police officer of or above the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector is expected to be acquainted with the rules in those volumes, which are binding on the police. The regulations in this chapter are explanatory or advisory and do not override these Manuals and Acts.

  • Members of the rural police are not, subject to the provisions of the Police Act, 1861. They. are not police officers except for purposes of the Cattle Trespass Act, 1871 (I of 1871). They are, however, public servants under section 21 of the Bangladesh Penal Code.
  • The village chaukidar is of great importance as an aid to police work. Without his assistance even the most active officer cannot know all that is going on in his jurisdiction. The chaukidar is not a well-trained or highly intelligent agent, but he is capable of much good work, and the results attained depend very largely on the care, attention and tact exercised by the officer in charge of the police station.
  1. (a) The general duties of dafadars and chaukidars are set forth in sections 39 and 40 of the Village Chaukidari Act, 1870, in the rules in section VI of the Chaukidan Manual, in section 23 of the Village Self-Government Act, 1919, in rules 36 and 38 of the Chaukidan Rules framed under that Act and in the rules in part 111 (B) of the Union Board Manual, Volume II.
  • Under section 23(viii) of the Village Self-Government Act, 1919, or section 39 (9th) of the Village Chaukidafi Act, 1870, the officer in charge of a police-station shall direct all chaukidars to bring to the station immediate information of the occurrence of any large fire, storm or inundation and any damage to telegraph posts or wires. He shall also require them to report immediately when the condition of any river, road or crop is such that a serious calamity may be apprehended. The chaukidars of panchayati unions will he required, in addition to the above information, to report the outbreak ol any epidemic among human beings or cattle and, from time to time, the condition of the standing crops.
  • All officers shall be careful to enforce the responsibility of dafadars for the work and conduct of the chaukidars under them. If there are two or more dafadars in a union, the officer in charge of the police-station shall endeavour to persuade the local authority of that union to define the responsibility of each dafadar. Every excuse or reason offered by a chaukidar for any breach of duty shall as far as possible he verified either by the dafadar concerned or by a member of the police-station staff.
  • Any report received either from the dafadar or the panchayat about the disappearance of, or damage to, the village boundary marks, shall he entered in the general diary and forwarded to the Collector fur disposaL Unless specially ordered by the District Magistrate, the police shall not investigate charges of mischief in respect of boundary marks, but they shall, while moving about in the interior, see whether the marks are in their places and report to the Collector any defect noticed.
  1. Under section 23(1) of the Village Self-Government Act, 1919, every chaukidar is bound to give information to the officer in charge of the police-station and to the president of the union board of every unnatural, suspicious or sudden death which may occur and any offence in schedule II of the Act which may be committed within the union and must also keep the police informed of all disputes likely to lead to a riot. or serious affray. If, however, by going first to the president he will be delayed in going to the police, he should send Information to the president through another chaukidar or other person and shall himself proceed direct to the police station. Chaukidars who delay to bring information of matters which require to be promptly reported render themselves liable to dismissal. Willful omission to perform duties is punishable under sections 166, 170 and 202 of the Indian Penal Code.

If it is manifest that there has been deliberate delay in reporting a serious occurrence or the likelihood of a serious breach of the peace or that information has been actually suppressed, the Superintendent will apply for the prosecution of the chaukidar concerned and instruct the Court officer in press for an exemplary punishment. Chaukidar when travelling by road, should go at a rate of not less than 24 mile an hour.

  1. (a) All dafadars and chaukidars shall give immediate intimation by telegram or the next

quickest available method, to the nearest police station, about the likelihood of riots, the intention to comment heinous crime, the presence of suspicious characters, the occurrence of serious crimes, such as murder, dacoity, rioting with murder, robbery, drugging and the like, all other cases in which they consider that immediate intimation should be conveyed to the police. They shall also use the telegraph freely for the purpose of preventing the escape of absconders.

  • The object of sending telegrams is threefold. In the first place, on receipt of a telegram, the investigating officer will reach the place of occurrence with the least possible delay, and will thus have been oppo~tunity of preventing riots and heinous offences; in the second, he will be able to apprehend suspicious characters; in the third, if the offenders are known to be absconding, and the dafadar or chaukidar can form a conclusion as to the direction in which they have gone, a telegram sent to a police officer at a police-station, railway station or ghat, giving a description of the man wanted and the offence with which he is charged, may not infreaucutly be successful in securing h s apprehension. Where necessary, telegraphic information can also be sent to a neighbouring dafadar or chaukidar, if, by so doing, it is thought provable that the arrest of an absconder might be effected.
  • It may be desirable to send more than one telegram in certain cases, for instance, if a murder has occurred and the murderer is absconding by rail, the dafadar or chaukidar should send a telegram not only to the officer in charge of the police-station within which the crime has been committed, but should also telegraph to the police of the place to which he thinks that the offender may be going, so that he may, if possible, be intercepted. If the dafadar or chaukidar is not sure whether there is a police-station at the place to which the absconder is believed to be going, he should telegraph to the Superintendent of the District Police or to the Superintendent of the Railway Police.
  • Dafadars and chaukidars are permitted to make use of Government and Railway telegraphs without prepayment for all messages which relate to their police duties. These messages are of two kinds, viz., (i) ordinary telegrams, and (ii) special po’ice telegrams. Special police telegrams shall be sent only in cases of real emergency, but when it is necessary to send a telegram during the hours when a telegraph office is closed, a special police message shall invariably be sent. In such a case, the dafadar or chaukidar shall get his message marked “Special Police”, and the telegraph official is bound to accept it at any hour of the day or night. All telegrams shall be marked “State”, and when an express message is sent, the words, “Special Police”, shall be endorsed upon it.
  • Telegrams shall he worded as briefly as possible, and, except in cases where an absconder is to be arrested, shall usually not contain details of names of parties, etc.
  • Officers in charge of Government and Railway telegraph offices have been directed to write out on telegraph forms in E1ignsh any information which a dafadar or chaukidar desires to send by telegram.
  • Dafadars and chaukidars sending messages about the prevention or detection of crime shall give their names, designations and addresses in the body of the telegram. In the space allotted for “signature” (and which will not be signalled), they shall also give their names, designations and addresses in full, including the name of the police-station and district. A dafadar or chaukidar shall also in all cases affix his left thumb-impression to the message. If he is illiterate, he shall see that the above details are entered on his behalf by the writer of the telegram.
  • When proceeding to send a telegram, dafadars, or chaukidars shall wear their uniform, or shall come with their appointment letter, which they shall show to enable the Post of Telegraph Master to identify them.
  • Dafadars and chaukidars are enjoined to Use the telegraph freely in connection with the prevention and detection of crime, but they shall remember that the use of the telegraph must be confined strictly to that object, and that the privilege of using the telegraph free of charge does not extend to other subjects.
  • Rewards shall be freely paid to dafadars and chaukidars who send telegrams freely.
  1. On receipt of the original telegram forms used for such messages from the Government or the Railway Telegraph offices the Superintendent shall at once stamp it with service stamps to the amount indicated for payment and shall return it to the Telegraph or Postal or Railway official concerned within 48 hours. A Superintendent may not refuse to affix stamp to a message, but if he considers that the message should be questioned, he shall write at once to the Telegraph official concerned and say that the message has been stamped, but it has been detained for the purpose of enquiry. The enquiry shall be made urgently, and the message shall be returned to the official in charge of the Telegraph office concerned as soon as the enquiry is complete. Superintendents shall not challenge such messages unless it is obvious that the message had nothing to do with Government business, and referred only to a private matter, in which case recovery shall be made from the dafadar or chaukidar concerned and credited to the treasury.
  2. (a) Union boards have been instructed to order their chaukidars never to leave their beats at night except with the permission of the president or, in urgent cases, under the direct orders of a police officer. The boards are also instructed to direct their chaukidars to perform such patrol duties at night for the security of the life and property of the residents of the union. Police officers should, therefore, avoid taking a chaukidar away from his union as far as possible and never without consulting the president except in matters of great urgency. When the matter is so urgent that there is no time to consult the president the police officer shall inform the president of his action as soon as possible. When for the purpose of the better controlling of a crime center it is desirous to concentrate chaukidars over a wider area than their own union, it should be possible for the officer in charge of a police-station by tactful explanation to satisfy the members of the union boards concerned that it is in the interests of their residents that this should be done.
  • Chaukidars and dafadars may be employed in guarding the railway line when Royalty, the Viceroy or the Governor are travelling. provided the officer employing them sends due information to the president of the union board or the president panchavat as the case may be. (See rule 45 of the Union Board Manual, Volume II.)
  1. Police officers are prohibited from employing dafadars and chaukidars on their private concerns or any duties of a menial or degrading kind. Superintendents shall see that the order is obeyed and shall make it special subject of enquiry when inspecting a police-station and shall also mention it in their annual report.
  2. (a) The rules for holding chaukidari parades are laid down in the Union Board and the Chaukidari Manuals.
  • The chaukidari parade shall be held as such an hour as to v, admit of chaukidars returning to. their village by sunset, if possible. And in order to ensure this, chaukidars shall be compelled to be punctual. It is equally essential that the police officers shall also be punctual and should not detain chaukidars unnecessarily.
  • The officer in charge shall preside at the parade, and shall not delegate this duty to a subordinate officer, except for every good reasons, which shall be recorded. in the general diary.
  • Every chaukidar and dafadar attending the parade shall be in uniform.
  • Parade shall be held in the police-station compound.
  • The chaukidars having assembled, their attendance shall be recorded in the attendance register (B. P. Form No. 63) by the officer holding the parade, black ink entries being made in the case of those who are present, while red ink shall be used for absentees. The names of all chaukidars absent from the muster parade, whose absence is unexplained, shall be entered in the general diary immediately after the parade. A monthly statement of the chaukidars whose absence during the month is unexplained or unsatisfactorily explained shall be submitted to the punishing authority in the first week of the following month in B. P. Form No. 64.
  • Rewards to chaukidars of panchayati unions shall be distributed by- the presiding officer at a pay parade at the police-station.

370      (a) After recording attendance, the officer holding the parade shall question the chaukidars present as to whether they have any reports to make om the following points:—

  • births;
  • deaths;
  • epidemics;
  • fires;
  • the state of crops;
  • cattle disease;
  • obstruction to telegraph wires;

(viii) injury to survey pillars, Government trees, bridges, etc.; (ix) the arrival of foreigners, swindlers, or criminal tribes in their villages;

  • the movements of bad characters;
  • visits of suspicious persons or registered bad characters to their villages;
  • persons suspected of cattle poisoning;

(xiii)     loss or straying of cattle;

  • the arrival of any suspicious boats;
  • the existence of any dispute likely to lead to a breach of the peace;
  • encroachment on, and injuries to public roads; and

(xvii) any other. matter regarding which the officer holding the parade may wish or have been ordered to obtain information.

NOTE.—Information regarding points (i) and (ii) shall only be collected in the rural areas referred to in regulation 234. Information regarding unnatural deaths must, of course, be insisted upon in all areas since this duty is imposed upon the village police by section 45 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

  • The subjects on which information is required, as specified in clause (a) above, are intended to be of general application, and not to meet the special requirements of particular areas. District Magistrates are at liberty to prescribe further questions, but it is desirable that the number of questions should be strictly limited, and to prevent such special questions being continued after they are no longer required, they should be sanctioned only for a specified time, after which they should be reconsidered. Information obtained in answer to questions specially prescribed by the District Magistrate shall be entered in the general diary.
  • All chaukidars having information to give on any particular subject shall stand up and remain standing until their information has been recorded.
  • Any dafadar or chaukidar having any information to give as to items (x) to (xvi), and any other men whom the officer holding the parade wishes to interrogate, shall be ordered to fall out and their information elicited from them out of hearing of the rest, so that they may understand that it will be kept as far as possible confidential. The remaining chaukidars shall then be allowed to depart. Those detained as above shall not be kept longer than is absolutely necessary. These enquiries shall always be made by the officer in charge, when he is present at the police- station and the fact noted in the general diary. The questions noted in items (i) to (ix) above may be put by thesecond officer or the Assistant Sub-Inspector under his supervision, provided that the officer in charge acquaints himself with the information elicited. If the officer in charge does not himself question the chaukidars who have information to give privately, he shall explain his reason for not doing so in the general diary.
  • The information obtained under items (i) and (ii) in clause (a) above shall be entered in the registers of births and deaths, that obtained under other heads in the general diary, items (ix), (x), (xi) and (xv) being also entered in the Village Crime Note-Book.
  • When birth and death reports are called for, each chaukidar shall hand in his hath-chitta. These hath-chittas, whether containing entries or not, shall be authenticated by the signature of a member of the Union Board or panchayet, and shall be brought in by chaukidars even when blank. Fresh entries shall be transcribed into the registers of births and deaths while the parade is going on.
  • Chaukidars should be catechised to ascertain whether they are acquainted with the abseonders, proclaimed offenders, released convicts, suspected characters and lathials residing or having relations in their villages.
  • Complaints by chaukidars of non-payment of salaries should be entered in the general diary, after chaukidari parade which will be available for reference when enquiries into a police complaint regarding non-payment of chaukidars’ salaries are made.
  1. (a) Circle officers are required by the Provincial Government to pay special attention to

the work of chaukidars and they are encouraged to attend chaukidari parades at the police- stations as well as the union board offices. At the police-station parades circle officers will be in a position to learn the information required by the police and will then be able to assist them in obtaining it from the chaukidars and the presidents of union boards. Police officers should, therefore, cooperate with circle officers and should keep them fully informed of anything that they require in the way of special information and of any defects in the working of any particular chaukidar or chaukidars.

  • Excise officers are also permitted to attend chaiikidari parades to explain matters to chaukidars and dafadars, and to obtain from them information of any offence against the excise 1aws.
  1. (a) Officers of police when investigating any robbery, burglary, theft or other offence

shall ascertain whether the chaultidar was present at his post when the offence was pernetrated; if not, the cause of his absence, and whether there may be reason to believe that he was himself concerned in, or connived at, the commission of the crime. In the event of any neglect or suspicion of criminality attaching to a chaukidar, the officer in charge of a police station shall forward a report to the Superintendent. When reporting chaukidars to the. Superintendent for punishment, police officers shall clearly state the nature of offence, recording the statements of any person who may be acquainted with the particulars of the case, and taking down the defence of the chaukidars. If the chaukidar has been reported or punished on any former occasion the fact should also be noted.

A serious riot, particularly one connected with the land, seldom occurs all on a sudden without previous preparation. When, therefore, such a riot occurs as to which the chaukidars has given no previous information to the police, the chaukidar’s explanation shall be taken and submitted to the Superintendent. If such riots frequently occur in any police-station without the officer in charge having any previous knowledge, of their likelihood to arise, it may be taken as an almost certain indication that the officer is apathetic or incapable.

(b) Rules in the Union Board Manual, Volume H, and the Chaukidari Manual contain instructions relating to the reporting of chaukidars’ offences and the occasions for and scales of punishments.

REGISTERS AND RECORDS, REPORTS AND RETURNS.

  1. (a) A list of registers and files to be maintained at each police-station and outpost

(including floating outpost) is given in Appendix XIII.

(b) In the following regulations are given instructions regarding certain of the registers and files not dealt with elsewhere.

  1. (a) No alterations in the form or mode of keeping the registers and files or preparing or

rendering the returns mentioned in Appendix XII, and no addition to their number, may be made without the previous sanction of the Inspector-General.

(b) Registers issued to police-stations shall bear a certificate under the hand of the head clerk on the inside of the cover as to the number of pages they contain. No certificate is required in the case of registers a through the mistake, so as to leave the word erased legible, and by in which the numbers of the pages are already printed. No page may be torn out of a station register. Any correction which it may be necessary to make in any station register shall be made by drawing the corrected word afterwards or in the margin. A piece of paper shall not be pasted over a mistake.

  • All entries shall be neatly and clearly written, and all corrections shall be attested by the signature of the officer making them. If words or lines are omitted from an entry, or if an entry is omitted altogether, no interpolation shall be made. The Omissions shall be supplied by a fresh entry in the regular course. English figures alone shall be used in all official papers and registers.
  • Station officers shall not rewrite registers without the written permission of the Superintendent

NOTE.—Seals of unitorm pattern have been provided for all offices and no deviation shall be allowed from the sanctioned design when seals are renewed or new seals are procured

  1. At every police-station a record of lands and buildings relating to the police-station concerned shall be maintained. It shall buildings, consist of:—
  • An extract in B. P. Form No. 239 from the register of lands and buildings kept in the office of the Superintendent. The amount spent on repairs each year shall be entered in it to enable Sub divisional Police Officers, Inspectors and other inspecting officers to check the estimates for annual repairs;
  • An accurate site plan of all the land in possession of the department with boundaries and boundary pillars. This should be a tracing of any correct and certified plan kept in the office of the Superintendent.

NOTE—No such register need be maintained in railway police-stations.

  1. (a) Two registers shall be kept in Bengal Forms Nos. 16 and 19 in which shall be included all orders, legal processes, as well as other correspondence received and despatched. •The registers shall be written up by the Assistant Sub-Inspector, but this shall not relieve the officer in charge of the responsibility of opening, dating and attending to the dak personally.
  • The register of letters received shall be divided into as many parts as required by the nature of the correspondence: thus—
  • Orders from courts and Magistrates.
  • Departmental orders.
  • Enquiry slips.
  • Such papers as are registered elsewhere, such as first information reports, final memorandum, etc., shall not be entered in this register.
  1. (a) The general diary as prescribed under section 44, Police Act, 1861, and sections 154

and 155, Code of Criminal Procedure, shall be kept in B. P. Form No. 65 at all police-stations. The officer in charge is responsible that it is punctually and correctly written. He shall himself make all but the routine entries. The diary shall be written in duplicate with carbon paper. Each book shall contain 200 pages, duly numbered.

  • Every occurrence which may be brought to the knowledge of the officers of police shall be entered in the diary at the time at which it is communicated to the station, and if no incident be communicated during the day, this fact shall be noted in the diary before it is closed and despatched.
  • In it shall be record, as concisely as is compatible with clearness, all complaints and charges preferred, whether cognizable or not, the names of the complainants, the names of all persons arrested, the offences charged against them, the weapons or property of which the police have taken possession, and the names of the witnesses who have been examined. In the case of a person arrested, his name, the number of the case in which arrested, the dates of arrest and receipt in the station lock-up, the date and hour when forwarded to the court, and the expenses, if any, incurred in feeding shall be noted.
  • The fact of enquiries having been made regarding absconders and shall be briefly noted. A note of the number and date of entries in the diary shall also be made in the registers where detailed If help is given to excise officers in the detection or prevention of excise offences, the fact shall be noted.
  • Information obtained in regard to the following matters relating to general administration shall also be entered:— The state of crops, roads, rivers, bridges, railway fences, Government buildings, ferries, embankments, trees, telegraph lines, etc.; the occurrence of large fires, inundations, storms, railway or other serious accidents; the outbreak, prevalence, or cessation of cholera, small-pox, fever or other epidemic disease; serious cattle disease; the passage through, or gathering together within, the limits of the station circle of large bodies of people; the arrival and despatch of prisoners; the receipt and disbursement or transmission of cash; particulars of taking and making over charge; distribution of duty amongst officers, change of police-station sentry; the holding of parade, quinine parade, kit inspection, barrack inspection; departure and arrival of officers to and’ from the mufassil, or on or from leave; transfers and new arrivals of officers; misconduct or instances of meritorious behaviour on the part of subordinates; assistance rendered by .panchayats or members of union boards in all matters not connected.’ with the actual investigation of cases; arrival and de-spatch of the mail; submission of periodical returns, and the imparting of instruction in drill, procedure and other duties to constables; all information as to threatened disturbances; attendance of dafadars and village chaukidars, the information furnished by them at muster parade or otherwise obtained regarding the presence of suspicious characters, gamblers, swindlers, foreigners or members of wandering tribes; the occurrence of any suspicious deaths amongst cattle; the presence of strange boats at village ghas, and the disappearance of any therefrom, and the result of enquiry, if any made, regarding them by dafadars and chaukidars, if such information has not been entered in the Village Crime Note­Book.
  • Whenever any escort over treasure or prisoners passes a police-station or outpost, whether the escort be of that district or of any other, the fact shall be entered in the diary, and the officer in charge shall enter and put the date and hour on the command certificate of the escort. In the case of escorts over prisoners, an entry shall be made in the diary if the prisoners are fed, what food was given and who were present at the time.
  • Every entry made in the diary shall be given a marginal heading in as few words as possible, and shall be numbered in a monthly series and attested by the signature of the officer in charge at the time.
  • An entry in the diary does not obviate the necessity of a separate report of any occurrence which is required by rule or order to be specially reported.
  • The collection and communication of intelligence on all matters of public importance is one of the principal duties of the police, and the manner in which this duty is performed by an officer in charge of a station will generally be manifested in his general diaries. Officers shall, therefore, endeavour to render their diaries as complete, but at the same time as concise, as possible.
  • The diary shall be completed, and a copy of it despatched in a cover to the address of the Circle Inspector one hour before the departure of the post, whatever time that may be, and shall be a complete record of all occurrences during the previous 24 hours. It is not necessary that the diary should commence and end with the day, but a note shall be made in the last entry stating that the diary has been viosed for the previous 24 hours. At district and subdivisional head­quarters, the diary shall be closed and despatched at 08-00, 50 that extracts from it may appear m the daily report of the same day.
  • The diary shall also be maintained at each outpost and be written by the officer in charge with carbon paper. In addition to entries concerning patrol work, the diary shall contain information regarding important matters coming to notice and the presence of suspicious characters, gamblers, swindlers, foreigners or members of wandering gangs. Cases that may be reported to such outpost shall also be recorded but no details need be given except a statement on the following lines: “A. B. came to the outpost at 08-00, and reported a burglary in his house last night. The complainant is sent with constables X. Y. to the police-station.” The diary shall be submitted daily to the officer in charge of the parent police-station where it shall be perused and filed after necessary action has been taken. If these diaries are written in Hindi, officers in charge of police-stations will have them read out to them by one of their up-country constables.
  1. (a) The register (in B. P. Form No. 66) shall be divided into two parts. In part I will be

entered the names of all escaped convicts and absconded offenders, irrespective of where they have committed crime, whose usual residence is within the station jurisdiction in which the register is kept. This register must tally with the entries for the station made in the Superintendent’s register with which it will be compared once a year. (See regulation 1118.)

Part II will contain the names of escaped convicts and absconded offenders (i) who have committed crime within the station jurisdiction, hut whose residence is either unknown or within some other station jurisdiction; (ii) who have relatives or connections living in the station jurisdiction irrespective of the place where crime was committed. In the case of absconders charged with crime committed within railway limits the Superintendent of Railway Police will send their rolls to the Superintendent of Police of the district in which the absconder lives, cither permanently or temporarily, or in which he has relations or connections. The district Superintendent will have the particulars entered in the register kept in his own office and in the police-stations concerned.

  • For the purposes of this register the following persons shall be considered as absconded offenders: —
  • Persons charged with cognizable offences, against whom there is evidence sufficient to warrant their trial, and who are at large when charge sheet is submitted on completion of the police-enquiry.
  • Persons who have escaped from police custody, or from a jail or lock-up.
  • Accused persons for whom proclamation has. been issued under section 87, Code of Criminal Procedure.
  • Persons who are on bail in cognizable cases or cases under Chapter VIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure and who fail to appear when their sureties are called upon to produce them.
  • No entry will be made in the register without the written order of the Superintendent, which should be obtained by the station officer as soon as it appears that a warrant of arrest issued or whish may be issued in a cognizable case cannot be executed or whenever a proclama­tion issued under section 87, Code of Criminal Procedure, has been published.
  • Periodical search and enquiry will be made for each absconder whose name is in the register, and the date and results of such enquiry will be entered on the back of the page on which his name is, together with the names of two respectable residents present at the time of the enquiry. The officer in charge of the police-station where the absconder is wanted will also arrange simultaneous “drives” at irregular intervals at all places where he is likely to be found.

NOTE.—As a large number of people living in Bengal have relations living in Calcutta, the Calcutta Police do not maintain a list of absconders who have relations or connections living within their jurisdiction. In consequence it is not possible for the Calcutta Police to make quarterly enquiries about such individuals.

  • The capture of an escaped convict or absconded offender should be promptly reported to the Superintendent, who will at once order the entry in his own register and in those of the various police-stations to which the roll was circulated to be cancelled.
  • When a convict who has escaped from the Andamans is arrested, he will be produced before a Magistrate, together with the notice in the Criminal Intelligence Gazette regarding his escape, and the Magistrate will decide whether there is any reason why the convict should not be removed in custody under section 86, Code of Criminal Procedure, to the Magistrate at the Andamans who issued the warrant. If no notice regarding the escape has been published in the Criminal Intelligence Gazette, the Court officer will apply to the Magistrate for an adjournment to enable the police to ascertain whether a warrant has been received from Port Blair for his recapture, enquiry being made from the Inspector-General.
  • A police officer to whom a proclamation has been mad- over for publication is responsible that the provisions of section 87, Code of Criminal Procedure, are strictly complied with and he shall submit to the Magistrate a written report showing clearly that the proclamation has been duly published as required by that section.
  • On receipt of an order of attachment the officer in charge of the police-station shall take necessary steps to effect the attachment and shall submit a report in B. P. Form 67 to the Magistrate issuing the order. In making the attachment, the list prepared under regulation 323 should be made use of, and if it is found that any property belonging to the accused as shown in that list, is not forthcoming, action under section 206, Indian Penal Code, should be taken against the person responsible for the loss.
  1. (a) All property stolen, whether recovered or not, and all property and articles of which

the police take charge, shall be entered a register in B. P. Form No. 68. When any such property is brought o the police-station, it shall be kept in the station malkhana until it is disposed of according to the order of the Magistrate or court. In police, order to avoid loss to the parties, property which deteriorates very ranidly, such as fruit, etc., may be sold in anticipation of sanction which shall be obtained as soon as possible, and the sale-proceeds thereof shall be sent to the Court officer.

  • The term “stolen property” is defined in section 410, Indian Penal Code.

‘The amount of property to be entered as stolen and recovered shall be the amount accepted by the Magistrate and shown in the final memo of the case.

When promissory notes, bonds and other similar property are stolen, only the intrinsic and not the nominal value of the article stolen shall be entered.

  • All unclaimed property (see. section 25, Police Act, .1861) shall be entered as soon as received at the police-station; or in the case of property not brought to the police-station, but left where found, as soon as the report is authenticated by an officer. The provisions of sections 25 and 27, Police Act, ~1861, apply to all unclaimed property of which any officer of the police may be the finder. When unclaimed property is sold, the sale shall in all cases be held by the Sub-Inspector of the police-station and not by an Assistant Sub-Inspector.

The police shall take over unclaimed arms and ammunition which they find in railway trains or in railway premises. Unclaimed anus and ammunition found by the officers of the railway, including Railway Police, shall be sent by them direct to the officers appointed by Government in this behalf and not through the police.

  • Suspicious property seized by the police shall be entered, and a report shall be made at once to the Magistrate under the provisions of section 523, Code of Criminal Procedure.
  • Intestate property taken into the charge of the police shall also be entered. (See also regulation 251.)
  • Property, movable or immovable, of absconders under section 88, Code of Criminal Procedure, shall also be entered in this register. Undivided interests in. the immovable family property of an absconding person who is a member of an undivided Hindu family can be- attached under section 88 of that Code.
  • In the remarks column shall be entered the steps taken for; disposal of the property and the abstract of the order of the authority to whom reports are sent.
  • When the Judge or Magistrate orders the property recovered or found to be returned to its

owner  or to any other person, the receipt of the person      to- whom it   is to be returned   shall be

obtained in column 10 of the register and the date of return shall be put under his signature. If the property is sent to the court for production before the court at the time of trial or for any other purpose, a note shall be made in column 10 to that effect, giving the name of- the constable by whom, and date on which, it was sent. The entry shall be signed by the officer in charge of the police station. At the beginning of every month the senior station officer will give a certificate that he has satisfied himself that the items disposed of in the previous month have been correctly so disposed, that the receipts for such disposal are in order and that no property is unnecessarily pending.

  • At the end of the year all property not disposed of shall be brought forward in red
  1. A list of all cognizable cases in which a first information  is used shall be     kept in chronological order in B. P. Form No. 69. The following instructions shall be noted:—

Column 1.—The number refers to the first information report number of the case. The cases shall be entered serially for each month, the different columns being entered according as dilferent materials are received at the various stages of the case.

Column 3.—Cattle thefts shall be distinguished by writing the letters “C. T” in red ink in this column.

Columns 4 and 5.—The amount accepted by the Magistrate shall be noted. In cases refused investigation, the value shall be ordinarily that reported by the complainant, but the opinion of the court, if expressed, shall be followed.

Column 13.—The number of persons pending at the end of each half-year shall be noted m pencil corrections being made on receipt of the final memo.

Columns 18, 19 and 20.—These shall be written in red ink in respect of entries concerning foreign convicts or suspects.

Column 23.—The Inspector, while inspecting the police-station, shall note in this column the period for which the record of the case is to be preserved.

The station statistics for the District Police shall be compiled in P. Form No. 70 and for the Railway Police in B. P. Form No. 71.

  1. A list o2 convicts and suspects residing in the border villages of all adjoining police- stations shall be kept at every police-station. Gazetted officers shall, during the course of their inspections or visits, inspect these lists; ascertain if the officers attached to police-stations know the criminals of the bodering villages, and see that these lists are brought up to date each quarter.
  2. (a) A register in B. P. Form No. 72 shall be kept for all warrants received by the police for realization of fines within the jurisdiction of the police-station. Every such warrant shall specify the time within which it shall be returned, which ordinarily shall not exceed six months. The police shall return the warrant in due time, whether the amount of the fine imposed, or any part of it, be realized or not They shall not retain time-expired warrants in their possession or, after the warrant has been returned, pay any domiciliary visit to a defaulter with a view to the realization of any portion of the fine outstanding, unless fresh orders are issued for them to do so. Any enquiries they may make, when they have no warrant to authorize their action, shall be made only under the order of a Magistrate with a view to ascertaining whether there are grounds for the issue of a fresh warrant. Such enquiries shall not ordinarily be made by an officer of lower rank than a Sub-Inspector.
  • If it appears that a defaulter can in all probability pay the amount of the fine outstanding against him, the police officer shall forthwith report the matter to the Magistrate having jurisdiction with a view to the issue of a warrant. In other cases he shall merely note “no assets” in the remarks column, dating the entry.
  • When a fresh warrant (subsequent to the first) is obtained, it shall be entered in the register in red ink and be treated as a fresh entry, reference being made in the remarks column to the year and number of the original warrant.
  • In the event of the death of a defaulter being reported, one final and formal enquiry shall be made as to whether he has left anywhere property of any kind.
  • All fines realized shall be remitted with the returned warrant at once to the Magistrate’s clerk in charge of the fine registers.
  • The Magistrate shall call for the register of each police-station at least once a quarter, and have it compared with the fine registers of his court. He shall also note that the police enquiries have been regularly made and properly recorded. The comparison shall never be made by the clerk in charge of the fine registers. It shall, when possible, be done by a Magistrate, or by some other of the Magistrate’s clerks. The Magistrate shall pay special attention to the duty of bringing irrecoverable fines imposed in his district or in another district to the notice of the District Magistrate concerned with a view to their remission and removal from the register.
  • Entries in the station register regarding realization of fines imposed in other districts, or in a subdivision of the same district, shall be compared once a quarter with the Magistrate’s cash-book.
  1. When a police officer, who has been ordered to execute a fine warrant issued under the Indian Railways Act, 1890, is unable to trace the accused at the address given; he must obtain from the president of the union board, or from another gentleman of similar status in the locality, a certificate that the individual named in the warrant does not reside at the address given.
  2. (a) Officers in charge of police-stations shall be supplied with lists of persons exempted from the operation of the Indian Arms Act, 1878, to enable them to ascertain whether any particular person is or is not exempted.
  • A list of persons licensed to carry or possess arms shall be kept at each police-station in B. 1’. Form No. 73. The entries shall be arranged village by village, the villages being grouped according to unions. Additions and alterations in lists of licences made during the year shall be reported promptly by District Magistrates to officers in charge of police-stations and a list of unrenewed licences shall also be furnished to police-station officers at the end of the year as soon as renewal of licences is over. To guard against the possibility of omission on the part of District Officers to send notices of additions and alterations made in the list to station officers and of the information thus received not being entered in the lists at police-stations, the District Magistrate shall send an up-to-date copy of the list annually to the officer in charge of each police-station who shall return the same to the District Magistrate after making necessary corrections in his register.
  • In November of every year officers in charge of police-stations shall report to the Superintendent (i) whether any licensee is dead, and (ii) whether there is any objection to the renewal of any license. They need not, however, comment on the suitability of each licensee on the list, but state, when definite objection is taken to the renewal of a license, the grounds of this objection. The Superintendent shall forward these reports with his remarks to the District Magistrate for orders. If any license is cancelled, the licensee shall be called upon to deposit his arms and license at the nearest police-station within 14 days after receipt of notice.
  1. Officers in charge of police-stations shall maintain a list in B.P. Form No. 74 of persons whose sentences have been remitted or suspended under section 401, Code of Criminal Procedure, and shall make monthly enquiries regarding them. They will report to the Superintendent any failure on the part of the released convict to fulfill the conditions of his release. This list shall be examined at the time of inspection.
  2. (a) The station officer shall maintain a list of approvers residing in his jurisdiction together with their history sheets, and keep a close watch On the”’. Enquiries regarding their conduct and mode of life shall be made at least once a quarter, and results noted in the history sheet. At the close of the year the station officer will submit to the Superintendent a summary of the above notes regarding each approver.

(b) The Superintendent shall keep a record of all approvers in his district in a form which will allow the annual reports of the station officers to be incorporated. lie will take his register with him when inspecting the police-station -to see that no case was overlooked.

  1. Each police-station shall maintain a minute book in B. P. Form No: 75 in which police officers visiting the station may record any requisition or suggestion concerning prevention or detection of crime. Such requisitions or suggestions received from other police officers, circle officers or presidents of union boards may also be noted in the minute book by the officer in charge of the police-station. The action taken in each case shall be noted- in its proper column. Minute books shall be examined frequently by superior officers of police in order to ensure that prompt and proper action is taken.
  2. At each police-Station such extracts from the Superintendent’s gang register as concern it shall be maintained.
  3. (a) When in course of ‘an investigation or at any other time, a police officer requires information from the officer in charge of any other police-station regarding an absconder or any other matter connected with the criminal administration of his jurisdiction except in enquiries regarding the movements of bad characters, he shall address an enquiry slip to him in B. P. Form No. 76 or No. 77. Form No. 76 shall be used in addressing officers within and outside the province and Form No. 77 for enquiries from the Calcutta Police.

(b) Each slip shall bear a serial number according to the date of issue and shall be entered in red ink in the register of letters received or~despatd1ed, as the case may be; if the enquiry relate to an absconder, the~nat1Ire of the crime with which he is charged shall be clearly noted. On receiving an enquiry slip back with the reply, it shall be -pasted on the foil from which it was originally’ torn. Officers recetvmg enquiry slips shall treat- them as urgent, and deal with them with the greatest possible dispatch. If the slip is not received back quickly, a reminder should be issued, but if in the case of a slip-sent out of the province any subsequent reminder is necessary, the officer in charge shall at once bring it to the notice of his Superintendent with a request to communicate with the Superintendent of the province concerned for early return of the slip.

  1. (a) Vandyked copies of thana maps, scale 1 inch to the mile, issued by the Director of Land Records and Surveys, shall be used as crime maps m all police-station other than town stations, for which town or municipal maps are to be used. A new map shall be used each year. For this purpose the jurisdiction vandyked maps for 5 years use shall be supplied to each police- station. They shall be attached to slips of paper placed inside the binding of two card-board covers and entitled “Crime Maps”. There will thus be a series of crime maps indicating, as each year is filled up, the crime of the police-station during each of a number of years.

Reported cases of dacoity, burglary for committing theft and house thefts only shall be entered on the map in proper places, the former in black ink and the two latter in red. The initial letter of the crime, viz., D—Dacoity, B—Burglary, T—Theft shall be used for the purpose and underneath the initial letter, the number and month of the case shall be given. Thus D—2.2 will signify dacoity case No. 2 of February, B-4.5 will mean burglary case No. 4 of May, and so on. When more than one section applies to an offence, the initial letter denoting the major crime only shall be written. Superintendents may enter other cases in the crime map, with appropriate symbols only if they consider such cases worthy of special attention in any particular area. A red cross (X) shall be made to show where surveilles live.

(b) Besides the vandyked crime map, a printed thana map, backed with strong canvas, shall also be maintained so as to be readily available for use. On it shall be marked in colours, as far as possible, liquor shops, public ferries, the boundaries of unions, and any other feature of importance which the Superintendent may think fit to order.

(a) In order to deal effectively with crime it is necessary to have a continuous and permanent record of the criminal history of individuals and localities. To secure this, there shall be maintained for each village or other administrative area which may be chosen as the unit for the purpose, a “Village Crime Note-Book” which will contain information about crime and criminals, including convicts and suspects. It shall be kept in B. P. Forms Nos. 78-83 (I-V) at each district police-station. It is maintained under the provisions of section 12, Police Act, 1861, and shall be treated as an unpublished official record relating to affairs of State. it is a confidential and privileged document and is not to be exhibited in court without the permission of the head of the office, and no Judge can compel its production except with the same permission (section 165, Indian Evidence Act, 1872). It is open to inspection by magisterial and police authorities, but no outsider shall see it or obtain copies of its contents.

NOTE.—If a court directs the production of the Village Crime Note-Book, or any part of it, police officers concerned will act as laid down in sections 123 and 162 of the Indian Evidence Act. 1872.

(b) The Village Crime Note-Book shall be divided into the following parts:—

Part 1.—The Crime Register, which will deal with professional crime occurring in the area.

Part II.—The Conviction Register, which will contain details of convictions of persons as specified in regulation 394.

Part 111. —The Village History, which will contain notes on special outbreaks of crime in the village, etc.

Part IV.—The History sheets of persons residing in the village who are believed to be addicted to professional crime, with an index at the beginning.

Part IVA.—.Comprises sheets containing enquiries about and movements of surveilles.

Part V—Au index of convicted persons whose names have been entered in Part II as well as of persons suspected in cases. but not convicted.

NOTE.—A Crime Note-Bock shall be opened for municipal towns and these regulations shall be applied so far as applicable, the town outpost being The unit.

  • For facility of reference an alphabetical list of all the villages contained in the jurisdiction of the police-station, with their jurisdiction numbers, shall be prepared in manuscript in the following forms: —

Column 1.—Name of village including local name and names of any hamlets included in the village.

Column 2.—Jurisdiction list number of village.

Column 3.—Number and volume of the Village Crime Note-Book.

Column 4.—Number of pages of Village Crime Note-Book.

Column 5.—Remarks.

  1. (a) The Village Crime Note-Book shall consist of as many volumes as there are unions pr

municipal towns within the station. The villages in each union or volume shall be arranged alphabetically. For each village there shall be at least one sheet each of Parts I, II and III. The forms will be provided with eyelet holes, so that more sheets can be added as occasion requires. Thus, if a union comprises 20 villages, this volume of the note-book shall contain at least 60 sheets and be bound as follows:— Village A—Parts I, II, III.—3 sheets, i.e., 1 to 6 pages.

Village B.—Parts I, II, III.—3 sheets, i.e., 7 to 12 pages, and so on.

The sheets for each volume shall be kept in card-board covers provided with corresponding eyelet-holes; the covers are specially designed so that the sheets may be easily taken out when required.

Parts IV and IVA which are also eyeleted shall be bound together for each convict or suspect for whom the history sheet is opened. They shall be given serial numbers and kept arranged in a flat file containing all the history sheets of the police-station.

Part V, which is merely an index, shall be in the form of a separately bound register in which the names shall be alphabetically arranged.

  • Spare parts shall be kept for homeless vagrants and persons convicted of offences committed on railways.
  1. Only matters relating to true cases of offences named in the schedule below shall be entered in Part I:—

Columns 1 and 2.—Require no explanation.

Column 3.—Modus operandi should include references to the way in whirls the crime appears to have been conceived, how the place of occurrence was reconnoitered, in what way stolen property was carried off, etc.

Column 4.—The value of property as declared by the Magistrate shall be entered and not that given in the first information report.

Column 5.—This column shall contain full particulars of the person suspected in the case mentioned in column 2. Cross references to Parts II, III or IV of the same or other police-station registers shall be given.

  • Offences under Chapters XLI and XVII, Indian Penal Code, punishable with whipping or with imprisonment for 3 years or upwards.
  • Personating a public servant, etc.—Sections 170 and 172. Indian Penal Code.
  • Murder for gain, murder by professional hired assassins and murder of spies and approvers—Section 302, Indian Penal Code.
  • Professional drugging—Section 328, Indian Penal Code.
  • Professional kidnapping, abduction and buying or selling of slaves or minor children— Sections 363 to 373, Indian Penal Code.
  • Professional swindling.
  • Professional mischief by killing or poisoning animals—Section 428, Indian Penal Code.
  • Professional forgery—Sections 465 to 469, Indian Penal Code.
  • Offences relating to forgery of currency or bank notes— Sections 489A, 489B, 489C and 489D, Indian Penal Code.
  • Offences relating to arms and ammunition—Section 19 (a) (e) and (0, 19A and 20 of the Indian Arms Act.
  • Railways—Section 126 or 127 of the Indian Railways Act, 1890.
  • Conspiracy, abetment and attempt in respect of off eiices mentioned in items (1) to (11) above.
  • Offences under the Goondas Act, 1923 (Bengal Act I of 1923).
  • Offences in connection with political agitation.

NOTE. —First offenders deals with by Courts under section 562, Code of Criminal procedure, shall be treated as convided. Convictions under section 511, Indian Penal Code, in respect of any of the offences mentioned above shall also be entered, persons sent to a lunatic asylum from a jail irrespective of offence under which convicted should also find entry. Abetment in respect of any of the offences mentioned above, shall similarly he entered.

  1. This part shall contain the name of every person residing in the village who has been convicted of any of the offences (i) specified in the schedule in the regulation above and (ii) under sections 109, 110, Code of Criminal Procedure, and culpable homicide—Section 304, Indian Penal Code, causing hurt—Sections 324, 326-27, 329, 332 and 333, Indian Penal Code, and offences under the Criminal Tribes Act. 1924.

The convictions of homeless vagrants shall be entered in the spare part kept under regulation 392(b).

Columns 1 and 3.—Require no explanation.

Column 2.—Personal description shall be copied from the final memorandum in which the Court officer writes it for the information of the police-station officer.

Column 4.—In the case of a person convicted in the Sessions or High Court the name of the committing Magistrate shall also be given.

Columns 5 and 7.—Name of identifying jail warder, notes about P. R., and F. P., date of release and name of jail from which released, shall be entered on receipt of P. R. slip.

Column 6.—In case of reconviction, cross references shall be given to the old and fresh entry, the fact being similarly noted in the Index (Part V).

  1. The Superintendent shall send information to the police-station officer of all convicted persons resident in such station who have been made P. R., and the station officer shall enter the letters “F. P.’, in red ink against the names of such persons in the Village Crime Note-Book. The Court officer shall communicate to the station officer the F. P. formula to be noted in the conviction sheet.
  2. When a person concerned in an occurrence resides within the jurisdiction of another police-station or when a convict or suspect permanently changes his residence to the jurisdiction of another police station, a roll in the form of a loose sheet of Part I or II, as the case may be, shall be sent to the Sub-Inspector of the station concerned,

who shall enter the facts in Part II or III, as the case may be, and return the roll to the issuing officer. The latter, after copying the references in his note-book, shall file it separately for destruction after a year. Rolls sent to police-stations outside the province shall be sent through the Superintendent’s office.

If a person has resided for 5 years in a village with his family, he shall be regarded as a resident of that village.

  1. On receipt of a P. R. slip (release notice) of a convict from a jail or penal settlement, the station officer shall note the necessary particulars in Parts II and IV, and ascertain whether the released convict has returned to and intends to reside in his village or not. In case he does not return, the station officer shall report the fact to the Superintendent in order that orders may issue for the entry of the convict’s name in the station in which he may have taken up his residence. When the date of release shall have been entered in the police-station register and the convict shall have returned home, the
  2. R. slip shall be returned to the Superintendent’s office with a report of these facts and the number of the entry in the register endorsed on it.
  1. Names of deceased persons and of persons who have attained the age of 60 years, but have not been convicted or suspected during the preceding ten years, and of persons who have attained the age of 50 years, but have not been convicted or suspected during the preceding 20 years, shall be struck out under the orders of the Superintendent. At the close of each year all station officers shall submit lists of persons whose names have been removed during the year to the headquarters Court officer, who shall make the necessary corrections in his index and conviction register and forward the list to the Superintendent. The Superintendent, after satisfying himself that the conviction registers and the indexes have been corrected, shall then file the lists in his office and shall inform the Finger Print Bureau in B. P. Form No. 84 regarding all those who are P. R.
  2. A separate list containing the eliminated names of only those classes of criminals as are given in Appendix XXXII shall be prepared by each station officer and submitted to the Superintendent’s office, where a consolidated list for the whole district shall be prepared and sent direct to the officer in charge of the Criminal Intelligence Bureau not later than 1st February. The police-station lists shall be submitted through the Circle Inspector, who shall scrutinize them before forwarding to the Superintendent’s office.
  3. The information to be entered in this part shall be obtained from all reliable sources that are available and shall go back as many years as possible. When once the history has been written up, it shall be added to from time to time by the station officer as fresh information is obtained or fresh events occur.
  4. (a) History sheets shall contain a short account of the life of the person to whom they relate and all facts likely to have a bearing on his criminal history. They shall be opened only for persons who are, or are likely to become, habitual criminals or the aiders or abettors of such criminals. The conviction of a person for a heinous offence, such as robbery, dacoity, serious burglary or receiving stolen property, will ordinarily be sufficient to justify the opening of a history sheet, unless there be reason to believe that although convicted of one of these offences,

the man is not a habitual criminal. For instance, a history sheet would not be opened for a man who, though convicted of house-breaking, is believed to have committed the offence in order to carry on an intrigue with a woman and not for the purpose of theft. On the other hand, if a person is suspected of being a receiver of stolen property, or of being concerned in systematic cattle theft, a history sheet shall be begun, even if he has not been convicted. History sheets shall not be prepared for persons dealt with as first offenders under section 562, Code of Criminal Procedure. Proceedings under section 110 of that Code, shall ordinarily not be taken until a history sheet establishes a case of bad livelihood. But if security has, in any case, been demanded from a person under section 109 or 110, Code of Criminal Procedure, before the preparation of a history sheet, such a sheet shall at once be opened.

  • In all cases of the orders of the Circle Inspector shall be obtained before a history sheet is opened, and the Inspector’s orders shall be confirmed by the Superintendent when inspecting the station. Orders about starting history sheets may also be conveniently passed by the Superintendent on final memoranda. If any information favorable to an individual, whose name has been entered in the history sheet, is obtained, it shall be duly recorded.
  • There shall be no regular watching over the movements of persons for whom history sheets are opened, unless they have been placed under surveillance by the Superintendent, but when the officer in charge visits the village he shall make confidential enquiries regarding the mode of life of such person, and note in the history sheets information, both favorable and unfavorable, which he may obtain in this or any other way. If the man has not been suspected of complicity in any case during any calendar year the fact shall be noted in his favour at the commencement of the next calendar year.
  • History sheets shall be consecutively numbered and kept together in a separate file as long as such persons are not brought under surveillance, with an index at the beginning.
  • When a man, for whom a history sheet is maintained, leaves the limits of one station and resides for over 3 months in another police-station within or outside the province his history sheet shall be sent to the latter police-station. When the police-station is in another province the history sheet should be sent through the Superintendent concerned. This transfer shall be noted against the individual’s name in the index. Officers receiving history sheets shall acknowledge receipt. Such history sheets will be dealt with in exactly the same way as other sheets in existence in the province, i.e., the sheets shall be labelled “Confidential” and governed by the rules existing in that province.
  1. (a) When a person for whom a history sheet has been opened is placed under

surveillance, the classification ordered shall be noted at the top against the heading “Class”. In calculating the approximate date of release, allowance shall be made for ordinary remission of sentence granted to prisoners under the Jail Code. Convictions shall be entered in chronological order, giving date, name of convicting court, section and term of punishment. The actual date of release shall be noted on receipt of the P.R. slip in case of P. R. prisoners and in other cases the date shall be obtained from the Court officer concerned. The name of the jail from which released shall also be noted below the date. If the convict does not return home after release, the fact shall invariably be noted.

  • The usual method of committing crime and details of any property possessed by the person, the number of persons whom he has to maintain and his occupation and approximate earnings, and of cases in which he was suspected but not convicted, shall be given in his biography in narrative form.

Details of cases in which he is known to have taken part as well as of cases in which he is reasonably suspected to have taken part with the grounds for suspicion shall be entered in this part as they occur. In addition at the beginning of each year a note shall be made as to his behaviour during the proceeding year with any details of permanent interest about the person’s criminal history obtained from a perusal of the enquiry note-sheets.

  • All entries shall be signed in full and dated.
  1. History sheets of men placed under surveillance shall be removed from the main file of history sheets and kept in a separate file, with an alphabetical index at the beginning. This will serve the purposes of a surveillance register and no other surveillance register shall be kept. When a man is removed from surveillance his history sheet shall be detached from this file and placed at its original place in the main file. When a surveille leaves the limits of one station and resides in another within or outside the province for over three months, his history sheet shall be sent to the station where he goes and the fact noted against his name in the index. When the police-station is in another province the history sheet shall be sent to the Superintendent concerned in that province. The officer in charge of the new station shall acknowledge receipt of the history sheet and continue to treat the surveill6 as a surveille of his own police-station until he goes back to his former residence, when his history sheet shall be returned.

“The history sheet of a man shall be destroyed after his death under orders of the Superintendent of Police/the Additional Superintendent of Police.”

  1. (a) In these sheets, which will be attached to the history Enquiry note sheets, shall be noted the movements of persons placed under surveillance and the result of enquiries regarding them. Information about the various places frequented by the criminal, the Opinion of the people as to his character and doings, the visits of strangers and suspicious characters to his house, the fluctuation of crime with his presence at or absence from any place, his style of living inconsistent with an honest legitimate income, etc., shall all be carefully collected by private visits and other enquiries and duly noted, so that the sheet may contain full materials for instituting proceedings under the preventive sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure, should such be necessary.

If the suspected is found absent from home, enquiries shall be made as to his whereabouts, and if he is a member of a gang, about the whereabouts of his confederates. Enquiry slip shall freely be issued to test the truth of any statement which may subsequently be taken,

  • All visits made by the station officer and by officers deputed by him shall be entered, as well as any information obtained at such visits, information of real importance being incorporated in Part IV as laid down in regulation 402.

NOTE. —The enquiry note-sheet, Part IV-A, shall be preserved for three years.

  1. This shall be kept in the form of a bound register. It is the index of persons convicted as well as of persons suspected but not convicted. For entry of the names a sufficient number of pages shall be allotted to each letter of the alphabet.

Names of those convicted should be entered in red ink and those suspected in black. If a suspected persons is subsequently convicted, his name should be underlined with red ink. Names should only be entered once and sufficient space should be left below each name so that subsequent references can be noted in columns 4 and 5. In the “remarks” column the date of birth should be noted against the names of persons convicted, Whenever the name of a person is entered in this index, a reference to the page number on which his name is noted should be given in the connected parts of the Village Crime Note-Book.

  1. Gazetted officers are required to pay special attention to the Village Crime Note-Book and shall make a point of personally making as many entries as possible in it. This may be either confirmatory or supplementary of entries made by the stall of the police-station.

When visiting villages, Silbdivisional Police Officers and Circle Inspectors shall check by local enquiry a certain proportion of the entries made in Part III relating to the villages in question.

  1. (a) A list of periodical reports and returns due from each police-station and floating outpost is given in Appendix XII.

(b) The original copy of every periodical report and return shall be filed at the station or post, those for the various periods, weekly, monthly, etc., being filed separately.

Miscellaneous returns shall be filed together monthly.

  1. (a) The monthly c-ash account shall be kept at each Police-station in duplicate in B. P.

Form No. 85. All sums received at the station, whether from the Superintendent’s office, from civil courts to be forwarded to the sadar station, small judicial fines realised, cash stolen and recovered, or from any other source whatever, shall be entered in the cash account. Should any sum have been omitted, the officer responsible shall be severely punished.

  • The name of all the payees need not be entered in column 8. A separate voucher shall be maintained for each day’s disbursements of the money received under each receipt cheque. It will be sufficient if only the first name on the voucher is shewn in column 8 after adding the words “and others”. In column 10 shall be shewn only the daily total against each receipt cheque.
  • A receipt cheque in Bengal Form No. 39 shall be given to the individual from home or to die office from which money is received at the station and therefore each item of receipt shall be supported by the duplicate of the receipt cheque, the number of which shall be entered in column 2 of the cash account.
  • A regular receipt in printed form shall be obtained for all money sent out from the station.
  • All receipt vouchers shall be numbered in a monthly series and kept in monthly bundles in order of date. The monthly serial number shall be entered against each payment in the cash account under the date, thus 4th/No. 10. The bundles shall be in due course destroyed in accordance with instructions in Appendix XIII (8— Police-station).

(I)        All cheques shall be signed and the entries in the cash account shall be made by the

officer in permanent charge of the station in his own handwriting or when he is absent on duty by the officer temporarily in charge not below the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector. The Sub­Inspector in permanent charge shall on return to the station initial the entries concerned and countersign the cheques and satisfy himself as to the correctness of the accounts.

The officer in permanent charge of the station may, when necessary, for the sake of convenience delegate by an order in writing in the general diary the work of keeping the cash account, disbursing money or signing cheques to a junior Sub-Inspector or to an Assistant Sub-Inspector by name but in that case the responsibility for the actual cash and for initialling the entries in the cash account shall rest with the officer in charge.

  • At the close of each month the original form in use throughout the month shall be forwarded by the officer in charge to the Superintendent’s office through the Court officer, the duplicate copy being retained at the station.
  • Cash shall not be kept in hand unnecessarily. If any sum of money has remained in hand for more than two months, the officer in charge shall, when submitting his monthly account, explain fully the reason for the delay.
  1. All miscellaneous magisterial receipts other than fines remitted to the Magistrate’s office, such as chaukidari money, sale proceeds of impounded cattle, and any other money realized under orders of the Magistrate unconnected with the police, shall be paid direct into the treasury or sub-treasury, as the case may 1)e, and shall not be sent to the Superintendent or to the Court office. The amounts thus remitted shall be accompanied by chalans in triplicate, in printed form, which shall be presented at sadar to the Magistrate’s accountant and a subdivisions to the nazir or in case the nazir is treasurer or treasury accountant, to the clerk in charge of the five register, or sonic other clerk from whom security has been taken and who does not perform the duties of the treasurer or treasury accountant. The Magistrate’s accountant or subdivisional clerk, as aforesaid, shall examine the chalans and if they are in order and correct, shall initial them and return them to the police officer to present with the cash at the treasury. At the treasury the chalans shall be taken to the accountant and treasurer, and after being receipted, two copies shall be returned to the police officer, who shall take one back to the Magistrate’s accountant or sub divisional clerk, as the case may be, leaving it with him for the purpose. of writing up his books, and shall retain the other as his acquittance.

All other money, such as cash stolen and recovered, cash found on under-trial prisoners, sale- proceeds of unclaimed, attached or suspicious property, shall be forwaroed to the Court officer. Interstate money shall be sent to the District Judge direct.

CHAPTER VII.

Court Police.

  1. —Prosecuting staff and general duties of Court officers.
  2. The prosecuting staff in each district shall consist of—
  • the Public Prosecutor who conducts prosecutions before the Sessions Court, and in important cases before Magistrate’s courts. All Government Pleaders are ex-officio Public Prosecutors, but in some district and sub divisional headquarters another pleader or advocate is appointed to be Public Prosecutor,
  • an Inspector at the headquarters station of every district, and an Inspector or a Sub­Inspector at the headquarters of each subdivision. These officers are styled Court officers, and are assisted by Sub Inspectors, Assistant Sub-Inspectors and constables according to requirements.
  1. In important cases, the Superintendent shall apply to the District Magistrate to retain the services of the Public Prosecutor from the commenceilient of the case in the lower court.
  2. By virtue of Notification No. 2507P., dated the 6th July. 1907, and Notification No. 3436Pl., dated the 24th December 1924, issued by the Provincial Government every Inspector and Sub Inspector who has been appointed to prosecute cases before the courts of Magistrates is thereby appointed to be a Public Prosecutor generally for all such cases in such courts.
  3. Under sub-section (1) of section 492 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Provicial Government has appointed all Deputy Superintendents at the headquarters of the districts to be Public Superintendents Prosecutors, and also all Inspectors who have been appointed to prosecute cases before the courts of Magistrates to be Public Prosecutors as in the Courts of Sessions in respect of cases of applications for bail only.

Under sub-section (2) of the said section the Provincial Government has further directed that no officer of police lower in rank than that of a Deputy Superintendent shall be appointed to be Public Prosecutor for the purpose of any case.

  1. (a) When any other officer or person is employed by the Magistrate to conduct the prosecution of a case, the Court officer shall give him all information needful to enable him to conduct the Prosecution efficitly.
  • No Court Inspector or Sub-Inspector shall leave the prosecution of police cases in the hands of legal practitioners engaged private persons without the express sanction of the

Superintendent or the Magistrate. He may take instruction from legal practitioners so engaged, and allow them to assist him.

  1. (a) The sadar Court Inspector shall be responsible for the prosecution of all cases at

headquarters, and shall assist the Circle Inspectors and Sub divisional Court officers with advice relating to the prosecution of cases when required by them to do so. He shall conduct prosecutions at subdivisions only when ordered by the Superintendent to do so.

  • The Superintendent shall not depute the sadar Court Inspector to take up cases at a subdivision without satisfying himself that there are no urgent cases at headquarters for him to conduct, and without informing the District Magistrate of the proposed deputation.
  • Should a Sub divisional Magistrate, Sub divisional Police Officer or Circle Inspector consider that any case at a subdivision ought to be conducted by the sadar Court Inspector in person, he shall apply to the Superintendent for the services of that officer.
  • When on a case coming before a Magistrate, it appears to him that the Court Inspector or Sub-Inspector should prosecute personally, be shall order him to prosecute, and the officer so ordered shall communicate the order to the Superintendent. If the Superintendent considers that the employment of the officer in the case is unnecessary, he shall refer the question for the orders of the District Magistrate.
  • The Court Inspector shall not ordinarily be employed on clerical duties or the upkeep of registers, but he shall exercise general supervision over the work of his subordinates, and shall be held generally responsible for the efficient working of the Court office. To enable him to do so he shall inspect the Court office once every year.
  • The sadar Court Inspector shall appear before the District Magistrate in appeals heard by him in police cases, when such appeals are contested, or when the circumstances of a particular case demand it, and the Public Prosecutor is not engaged to appear.
  • The Court Inspector at the sadar shall not be taken into the niufassil by the Magistrate without reference to the Superintendent.
  • Ciurt Inspectors shall have the use of law books, law reports and the Calcutta Gazette in the Magistrate’s library, and such books, reports and gazettes may be issued to them from the Magistrate’s library on their own requisition.
  • Court Inspectors shall make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the contents of the case dairies and with all particulars connected with those cases which they have to prosecute. If the case diaries do not contain full details of evidence the Court officer should ascertain from the witnesses the facts they will prove, and prepare himself for the proper conduct of the case.
  • All applications made to Magistrates by Court Inspectors in the course of a trial shall be in writing, and shall be filed in the same way as is done by private parties.
  1. Where there is a Court Inspector a Sub4nspector attached to a Court office shall prosecute such cases as are made over to him by the Inspector and in addition maintain such registers as the Inspector may order him to maintain.

In a sub divisional court where there is no Court Inspector, he shall carry out the duties of a Court Inspector and in addition maintain such registers as the Superintendent may order him to maintain.