Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

The Punjab and Haryana HC has asked Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh DGPs to file affidavits on the number of bank fraud cases pending investigation as on June 30. Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi has also asked for a year-wise break-up.

Justice Tyagi called for number of bank fraud cases in which the accused were acquitted or convicted by the trial court during the past 10 years. The DGPs were also asked to specify whether any study was conducted by state-established committees on the reasons for acquittal and whether remedial measures had been suggested. Justice Tyagi observed the tone, tenure and purport of its previous order on preparation and circulation of SOPs for probing such cases had not been understood in the right perspective by the special committee constituted by the Punjab DGP.

Rejecting the SOPs prepared by Punjab, Justice Tyagi observed apparently, the 300-page SOPs were prepared by compiling and adding to contents copied from various reports/documents available on the Internet. The information was definitely valuable. But it was difficult to understand how an investigating officer deputed to probe financial and bank frauds would remember the salient procedural aspects of the SOPs.

“The SOPs for investigation of designated category of criminal cases prepared earlier do not run into such length of pages. So the SOPs prepared by the special committee constituted by the DGP, Punjab, will not be a guiding tool for investigating officers,” Justice Tyagi said.

‘Give data of past 10 years’

• Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi called for number of bank fraud cases in which the accused were acquitted or convicted by the trial court during the past 10 years
• The DGPs were also asked to specify whether any study was conducted by state-established committees on the reasons for acquittal and whether remedial measures had been suggested