The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has recommended to the Tamil Nadu government to instruct the Director General of Police (DGP) to issue suitable instructions to all Station House Officers (SHOs) across the State to act as per Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) whenever complaints were received and cognizable offences were made out in them.
While passing orders on a complaint, SHRC acting chairperson D. Jayachandran also recommended to the State government that the DGP be instructed to give necessary training/awareness programme about human rights to all the SHOs across the State.
The Commission had initially taken suo motu cognisance of a report published in The Hindu on March 11, 2018 and sought for a report from the Director General of Police / Director, Investigation Wing of the Commission. Subsequently, the complainants sent the complaints to the Commission.
In their complaint, R. Irudayaraj and Saloman David submitted that four churches / prayer houses at Koodal Pudur and Sikkandar Chavadi of Madurai district were attacked by some Hindu religious extremist groups and the Holy Bible was burnt on March 11, 2018. Though complaints were submitted and videos submitted, police failed to mention the name of Hindu Munnani functionary in the FIR and hence the complaint.
The respondent policemen denied all the averments set out in the complaint filed by the complainants. They submitted they registered a case on March 14 and accused persons were arrested on March 17 and 19 that year and that similar action was followed in other cases too.
After considering the arguments from both sides, the Commission referred to the Supreme Court judgment in Lalithakumari vs. Government of Uttar Pradesh case which held the office in-charge of a police station was mandated to register every information oral or written relating to the commission of a cognizable offence and eventually register an FIR, as per Section 154 of the CrPC.
“Considering the records available on hand and the report.. the respondents issued only CSR and registered FIR only after three days, after the intervention of the higher officials, which shows the slackness in duty by not registering an FIR instantly…” Mr. Jayachandran pointed out.
The Commission also recommended a compensation of ₹60,000 to the complainants and that the sum be recovered from Inspector Manivannan and Sub Inspector Murugan, then attached to Koodalpudur police station.
