The notice, issued by the interior ministry, comes days after the Hathras incident in Uttar Pradesh as well as crimes in other parts of the country.
The notice listed key areas of mandatory action by the police in cases of crimes against women, including sexual assault. These include the FIR registration, the collection of evidence for forensic examination and the use of Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kits (SAEC), the completion of the investigation in sexual assault cases in two months, and the use of the database. national data on sex offenders to identify and track repeat sex offenders, among other things.
Affirming the importance of the victim’s declaration of death, the notice cited Section 32 (1) of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, which states that “the declaration, written or verbal, of a person who is dead will be treated as a relevant fact in the investigation when the statement is made by a person about the cause of his / her death or about any of the circumstances of the transaction that resulted in his / her death ”.
Reference is also made to the order of the Supreme Court of January 7, 2020, which provided that a certain statement, when offered as a dying statement and satisfies all the requirements of judicial scrutiny, cannot be ruled out simply because it has not been registered by a magistrate. or that the police officer did not obtain certification from anyone present at the time of making the statement.
The ministry said there should be a mandatory FIR registration and also cited Section 164-A of the CrPC which states that in the investigation of rape / sexual assault, the victim must be examined by a registered doctor under consent within 24 hours from the moment of receiving the information. He said the law also allows the police to register a “Zero FIR”, in case the crime is committed outside the jurisdiction of the police station.
He called on states to issue compliance instructions and called for severe punishment for the faults of officials involved in investigating such cases.
It is also emphasized that sexual assault evidence collection kits need to be used in all reported sexual assault cases.
The MHA statement stated that “however, even with strict provisions in the law and various capacity building measures taken, any failure of the police to comply with these mandatory requirements may not bode well for the administration of criminal justice. in the country, especially in the context of women’s security ”.
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