The Hindu : Front Page : Cr.PC changes coming: Patil

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Thursday, Mar 08, 2007
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Cr.PC changes coming: Patil

Special Correspondent

This is to make police take complaints of persons missing seriously

FIR copy will be immediately sent to judicial magistrate Samajwadi Party protests reference to Mulayam

Shivraj Patil

NEW DELHI: The Government is considering changes in the Criminal Procedure Code to ensure that action is taken on first information reports filed in police stations. Law will also be changed to make the police act on reports of women/children missing, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said on Wednesday.

He was replying, amid acrimonious scenes in the Rajya Sabha, to a question on the killings at Nithari in Noida, where hacked remains of children and women were found in a drain.

The Minister said the Government was considering amending the Cr.PC because it was observed that the police did not take FIRs seriously. "We have decided that after an FIR is filed in the police station, a copy would be simultaneously sent to the judicial magistrate. This will ensure that even if the police do not register the FIR, action is taken."

On a mechanism to trace missing children and women vigorously, Mr. Patil said the Union Ministry of Women and Child Welfare proposed making cases of persons missing a cognisable offence so that an FIR would be lodged and the matter taken more seriously.

The Centre consulted States and asked them to give their views on a proposal it was drafting.

The police have come under fire over the Nithari killings as they refused for a long time to register FIRs on missing children and women. It was later believed that the victims were sexually abused, their bodies dismembered and thrown in a sewer.

Commotion

Mr. Patil made his remarks amid commotion with Samajwadi Party members entering the well in protest against references to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh.

When a Congress member asked whether the Central Bureau of Investigation would seek a statement from Mr. Singh, the Minister said: "It is not our intention to direct any investigating agency to do or not do anything."

But the question brought half-a-dozen protesting SP members into the well and they returned to their seats only after an assurance from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi.

Despite the interruptions and slogan shouting, Mr. Patil remained held his ground. "You apply your mind to my reply. Don't apply your mind to your question. Please sit down," he told a member who was interrupting him.

"If your attempt is to create an impact, then I cannot do anything," Mr. Patil said on another occasion.

Mafia menace

Brinda Karat (CPI-M) and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party) did not want the issue restricted to Nithari and wanted members to rise above party divisions to discuss the "extremely alarming situation."

Ms. Karat said that besides the disappearance of children all over the country, the condition of migrant families was worse. She called upon the Government to crack down on the mafias indulging in trafficking in children and instruct the police to pay special attention to large settlements of migrant workers.

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