‘We are training judges in crime investigation to facilitate them’

Punjab Police officers are training judges in evidence collection mechanisms to reduce the gap between investigators and judges in the larger interest of legal and justice system. This was disclosed by Punjab Police Training Additional Inspector General (AIG) Sarmad Saeed Khan in an excusive interview with Pakistan Today on Monday. “Criminals have been taking advantage of loopholes in the system and we are trying to cover them,” Khan said, adding that the Judicial Academy was very interested in reducing the gaps between investigations and court hearings. “Hence we decided to train civil judges about crime scene, evidence collection mechanism and preservation of DNA and finger prints.”
He said till then four batches of civil judges had been trained and more than 180 judges had learnt the techniques of investigation in just one day. He said three batches were trained by the trainers of Punjab Police at Police Training School, Chuhang, while one batch had received training at Judicial Academy. He said trainers of Punjab Police had re-enacted crime scenes in front of judges and showed them how the police carried out the investigation. Talking about the spirit of the training, Khan said it would bring the police and the judges on one page.
“We are trying our best in our very limited resources to get the criminals punished from the courts,” Khan said, adding that an attempt was being made at grooming the police investigators and the judges and several courses had been started for the investigators also. He said the Punjab Prosecution Department had also been taken on board to increase the conviction rate. He said a programme, now running under the umbrella of an NGO, GIZ, purely focused on building cooperation between the prosecutors and the investigators.
He said under the programme a committee had been constituted under his chairmanship to bridge gaps between prosecutors and investigators as well, adding that the committee had developed a checklist for prosecution to facilitate investigators and prosecutors. He said investigators were directed to affix checklist with case file to make sure that the documents and procedures were followed. “We are also trying to develop certain standing operating procedures (SOPs) for the cooperation of prosecutors and investigators,” Khan said, adding that the committee would also monitor the procedure.
“Most of our ideas cannot be implemented because of financial constraints,” said Khan, adding “the government should allocate 25 percent of the police’s budget for training” and that the police was trying its best to meet its needs through the funds being provided by different NGOs.