PANAJI
With an emphasis to put up a strong case of criminal offenses before the trial courts, the State government has notified Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Goa Police while investigating cases including custodial deaths.
The development comes in pursuance of an order by Supreme Court in April 2021 into a suo motu petition pointing out inadequacies and deficiencies in criminal trials.
As per the notification by the Department of Home, every Medico Legal Certificate (MLC), Post Mortem (PM) Report shall contain a printed format of the human body on its reverse, and injuries, if any, shall be indicated on such sketch.
While all the details are to be mandatorily incorporated during an investigation, the Investigation Officer (IO) is asked to ensure that MLC and PM reports received by them are as per direction. If not, it has to be returned to the Medical Institute for rectification/inclusion.
Photography and videography of post-mortems in certain cases such as custodial death is also mandatory wherein a magistrate or the IO are to inform the hospital or doctor in charge to arrange for photographs or videography for the autopsy of the deceased.
Besides preserving the electronic evidence in original, certificates under the Indian Evidence Act have to be obtained by the IO for trials.
The notification also highlights annexing the site plan of the place of occurrence of an incident to the “scene mahazar or spot panchanama.” The site plan shall be prepared by the Investigating Officer by hand, and disclose every detail for carrying out a thorough investigation.
“Every Investigating Officer shall ensure that the Site Plan (Sketch of Scene of Occurrence/Offence) of the place of occurrence of the incident is made by hand and appended to the Spot Panchanama, necessarily disclosing all aspects (covered in the detailed SC order)... Further, a Scaled Site Plan is to be prepared by police through a draftsman authorized by the State Government after visiting the spot. All concerned shall strictly adhere to this Circular for immediate and strict compliance,” it said.
Further, “the preparation of this sketch by the Investigating Officer shall be followed by a scaled site plan prepared by engaging services of a draftsman from PWD or nominated draftsman by the State Government, who shall prepare the scaled site plan after visiting the spot. The relevant details in the mahazar or panchanama shall be marked and correlated in the said site plan”, it said.
