7,300 TN policemen face action over closure of FIRs

Chennai, Feb. 6: The Madras high court was informed that the Tamil Nadu police has initiated disciplinary proceedings against at least 7,324 officers for failing to file final reports within the statutory time limit which resulted in closure of over 2.14 lakh FIRs by trial courts.

Filing a counter- affidavit on the interim order passed by Justice M. V. Muralidharan, the director general of police’s office magistrate courts were not maintaining registers to enable police to know about cases which were “not taken on file”.

There were 1,72,602 such cases between 2010 and 2018, according to the counter affidavit, which also claimed that the lower judiciary closed FIRs for not filing of chargesheets by the police.

It was also brought to the knowledge of the judge that in total between 2009 and 2014, 2,14,901 FIRs had been closed by magistrate courts.

The DGP office also submitted that disciplinary action is being initiated to issue show cause notices to 7,324 investigating officers who had failed to file the final reports within the stipulated time which resulted in closure of FIRs by trial courts.

The issue started during hearing of a civil appeal moved by Tirupur- based Safire Print Lab Knits and Woven Fabric against the commissioner of employees granting ` 3.94lakh compensation to an employee of the firm who died in an accident while at work.

When the appeal came up on December 6, Justice Muralidaran had directed the Uthukului police and hospital management to file a report to ascertain the status of the case.