Police Functioning Demystified (Part II)

As discussed in the earlier part, let us talk about the various Police Departments in India.

The State Police, CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), SRPF (State Reserve Police Force), BSF (Border Security Force), CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police), RPF (Railway Protection Force), GRP (Government Railway Police), RAF (Rapid Action Force), NIA (National Investigation Agency), NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau), DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence), Cyber Crime Cell, ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad), ED (Enforcement Directorate), SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) Customs, Central Excise, Income Tax Department, IB (Intelligence Bureau), RAW (Research & Analysis Wing) etc.

But full police powers to investigate all criminal offences of the land is given to only two agencies viz. the State Police (which falls under the Home Ministry of the State Government) and the CBI (which falls under the Central Government – Dept. of Personnel & Training). They can register criminal cases, investigate, file charge-sheet and prosecute.

All other agencies mentioned above have only limited powers & jurisdiction viz. GRP – criminal offences happening in Railway premises, NIA – offences of terrorism, NCB – offences relating to NDPS (Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances) Act, ED – offences of money laundering, Customs & Central Excise – cases relating to customs or excise violations, IT – only IT evasion cases.

CRPF, SRPF, RAF etc. are used primarily for riot control or during calamities. BSF and ITBP are posted along the country’s border. ATS is basically created to counter terrorism and NIA to investigate and file charge-sheets in terrorism cases. IB & RAW are intelligence agencies of the Central Government – IB for internal intelligence and RAW for external intelligence. CISF is for the security of Government Departments and Installations like the Airport, BARC, JNPT etc.

The most favourite of the film folks is the Local Police and the CBI. The Local Police is shown as the most intelligent investigator and the strongest muscleman who can take on the local thugs singlehandedly. CBI is shown as super humans with powers of invisibility, teleportation and master of disguises. So we can start discussing about these two departments of the Police in Part III of this series.