Criminal Investigation

Continued from https://cvshreejeev.wixsite.com/website/post/hiring-and-hierarchy-of-the-police-department

Criminal Investigation

To put it simply, Criminal Investigation is an Investigation of a Crime.

Let us first take the example of a conventional crime like “Murder”. The three primary questions an Investigating Officer (IO) will need to find answers for, to proceed with the investigation are “HOW”, “WHO” & “WHY”. Once they get the answers to these three questions, it’s only a matter of collecting evidence and filing a charge sheet.

The first duty of the Police Officer on receiving such a complaint is to inform the Executive Magistrate of having received such a complaint. He should then proceed to the scene of the crime and cordon off the area so that bystanders cannot intrude into that space and knowingly or unknowingly destroy crucial evidence. The Police Officer should also arrange to get the Forensic Team, the Dog Squad, Photographer, etc. to the scene of the crime. The Officer then makes a Panchnama (under section 107 of the CrPC), recording each and every item found at the scene of the crime, in writing, in the presence of two or more Panchas (independent witnesses). The Panchnama should also reflect the apparent cause of death, any wounds, injury marks, ligatures, bruises, and fractures on the body, and in what manner the body was found. It should also mention the likely weapon that might have been used for the crime, depending on the injury marks appearing on the body. Photographs are also taken from various angles of the dead body. The body is then sent to the nearest Civil Surgeon for post mortem. The Panchnama is a very important document that has to be produced in Court during the Trial. The Panchas who had signed the Panchnama will also be required to depose in the Court.

The IO then proceeds to find out the facts of the case to know how the crime was committed. In all probability, the IO would not be knowing who the culprits are and hence the FIR would be against unknown persons. During the course of the investigation, the IO finds out the people responsible for the crime.

The investigation would not be complete without knowing the reasons or motive for the crime. Any crime will certainly have mens rea (guilty mind) which includes any of the following three elements viz. intention/motive or recklessness or negligence. It is of paramount importance to know the mens rea, or else it would be impossible to get a conviction during the Trial. In very rare cases where strict liability exists, mens rea is not required to get a conviction. An example could be Statutory Rape where the perpetrator engages in consensual sex with a minor under the wrong belief that the minor is a major.

To sum up the procedure of Investigation of a conventional crime like murder, - the IO would not know the identity of the accused in the initial stage. The primary aim of the IO would be to get answers to HOW, WHO, & WHY. The case relies more on oral, electronic, forensic, and circumstantial evidence to solve the case.

Now let us take the example of an Economic Offence where scores of common people are cheated of their hard-earned money in a fraudulent money scheme offering exorbitant returns on investments. Once a complaint is received, an FIR is registered by the Police Officer. The IO has to find out the answers to HOW, WHO & WHY. In all probability, the answer to WHO is available in the complaint itself. It is only during the course of the investigation that the involvement of more people is found out and their names are added to the charge sheet. The answer to WHY is also evident that it is for monetary gains. So most of the focus is on HOW the offense was committed and to follow the money trail to find out the end beneficiaries of the proceeds of the crime. The case relies heavily on documentary evidence to trace the money trail and identify the end beneficiaries.

We will talk about "Evidence" in my next Blog.