Graduate constables given investigating powers in Odisha

In order to improve quality of investigation, reduce pending cases in police stations and to improve conviction rate in criminal courts, the Odisha police have assigned investigating powers on graduate constables, State DGP R K Sharma said Friday.

The graduate constables will be given 4-5 weeks of institutional training and 4-6 weeks of field training on investigating procedures, maintenance of case diaries and filing of charge sheets, after which there will be a test for them to select the investigating officers (IO) among the constables.

The selected constable IOs will have powers to investigate only of the minor offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Odisha Prevention of Gambling Act and Odisha Fireworks and Loudspeaker Regulation Act, which invite quantum of punishment for less than three years," Sharma said.

The DGP said large number of pending cases, increase in number of registered cases, inadequate and multifarious duties of thana staff collectively lead to poor quality of investigations which ultimately reflects in poor conviction rate of criminal cases in Odisha.

The conviction rate in Odisha is actually very poor in comparison to other states. For the past several years, Odisha lies at the bottom three or four in the national conviction list," the DGP said, adding a proposal to this effect was submitted to the state government last year.

At least 15 to 20 per cent constables posted in different thanas of the state are now found to be graduates or post graduates, the DGP said expressing hope that the "path breaking" measure to give investigating powers to literate constables will yield better results in increasing the conviction rate.