BHUBANESWAR: The commissionerate police has decided to open an e-library here to help police personnel on different issues, especially in tackling challenges of new-age crimes, evolving legal provisions and case studies of successful investigations by police in different states and countries. The proposed e-library, whose work is underway at the police commissioner’s office, will be accessible to police officers of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
“We will launch the e-library soon. Installation of computers and internet connectivity is being made to make it operational. Readers can find a number of books on different topics, judgment orders of different courts and books on law,” commissioner of police Y B
Khurania told TOI.
Khurania said the officers in police stations in the twin cities will be encouraged make it a habit of reading books and improve their knowledge on issues, which matter their professional capability. The top cop said the practice of searching preferred books or court judgments on computer is quick and far less tedious than the manual search of pages in books.
Experts said police officers need to be updated regularly about amendments or changes in law. “We often find officers in many police stations not conversant with changes or amendments in Indian penal code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Unless they learn the changing laws, their investigation will become futile and charge-sheets become weak,” retired director general of police S N
Tewari said.
Lawyers said the investigating officers must gather knowledge about important judgments of
Supreme Court and
Orissa high court. “We do not think that the officers in police stations ever show eagerness to learn about the judgments, even though
Crime Branch sends copies of the important verdicts to all SPs. Lower rung personnel are hardly encouraged by their seniors to remain updated about new law and legislations. At times they cut sorry face in court for submitting charge-sheets with obsolete sections of Indian criminal law system,” senior lawyer Sidharth Das said.
In a recent conference of senior police officers here, director general of police R P Sharma attributed one of the plausible reasons of low conviction rate to poor grip of officers on contemporary law. Sharma then asked officers to learn legal books and court verdicts.
(Representative image)
