Chapter XII of the Criminal Procedure Code defines the powers of the Police to investigate offences; they have suo-moto powers to investigate ‘cognizable’ offences. ‘The law of criminal procedure creates the necessary machinery for the detection of crime, arrest of suspected criminals, collection of evidence, determination of guilt or innocence of suspected person and imposition of proper punishment on the guilty persons.'

 

A “cognizable offence” means an offence for which a police officer may, in accordance with the First Schedule of the Code or under any other law, arrest without warrant. The IPC and other special acts in force, define various offences, while the Indian Evidence Act defines evidence. But it is the Code that outlines the procedure for collection of evidence that will lead to a charge in the competent court against the offender, leading to his trial, and conviction or acquittal. The Code also ‘defines’ investigation, which includes all the proceedings under the Code for the collection of evidence conducted by a police officer or by any other person (other than a Magistrate) who is authorised by a Magistrate in this behalf.

 

When a complaint of a cognizable offence is made before a SHO of a Police Station, it results in registration of a case which initiates the process of statutory investigation (section 154 of the Code).  A copy of the First Information Report, describing the offence, is forthwith sent to the jurisdictional Magistrate by the SHO, to keep the Magistrate informed of the commission of the offence so that he may be able to have oversight over the investigation and issue appropriate instructions, if required. The SHO, either himself or through a subordinate police officer authorised in this connection, visits the scene of crime for inspection and collection of relevant evidence (section 157 of the Code).

 

Summoning relevant witnesses and recording their statements is laid down in sections 160-162 of the Code. Provisions have also been made for recording confessions by Magistrates (section 164 of the Code). The Code has provisions for summons to be issued by a police officer for production of a document (section 91), and for conducting searches where necessary, after obtaining warrants (section 93). However, in cases where, during investigation the SHO or the officer authorised in this connection, believes that there is no time to obtain a warrant from the concerned jurisdictional Magistrate for conducting a search in order to recover a document or a thing required for investigation, the Code provides for conducting search without a warrant (section 165).

 

The Code further provides for investigation by the SHO in other jurisdictions, including searches without warrants (section 166 of the Code). After amending the Code in 1990, provision has also been made for investigations abroad, through judicial requests, and for investigators from foreign countries for conducting investigations in India, again through judicial requests (sections 166-A and 166-B respectively ode). Section 166-A of the Code pertains to ‘Letter of request to competent authority for investigation in a country or place outside India’. For this purpose, the investigator makes an application before the jurisdictional Court that evidence may be available in a country or place outside India, based on which the Court issues a letter of request to the Court in that country competent to deal with such requests, to examine orally any person acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case under investigation, record his statement, and ask him to produce any document or thing in his possession that may be relevant for the case. These statements and documents, or their authenticated copies, are then sent to the Court who had made the request for the evidence. The evidence collected in this manner is then forwarded to India. The manner of sending the request to the competent Court abroad and the manner of receiving the response has been laid down by the Central Government, the Home Ministry playing a nodal role.

 

Similarly, on receiving a request from a country or place outside India to a Court, or an authority, for investigation in India, for examining a witness or producing a document or issues relating to an offence under investigation in that country or place, the Central Government, after examination, may either send the request to the jurisdictional Magistrate, or to a police officer, for recording the statement of the witness or collecting the document or thing. The evidence collected is then transmitted to the Court who had issued the request, by the Central Government in the prescribed manner.

 

After completion of investigation, a police report is filed by the investigating officer in the jurisdictional Court, giving details of the offence alleged to have been committed, names of the accused, names of the witnesses and details of documents and material objects relied upon to establish the offence (section 173). This briefly is the procedure that is sanctioned by the Code of Criminal Procedure for investigation of cases in India.

 

In this background, can there be a joint investigation, where investigators of two countries jointly investigate a case, when the accused based in one country plan to execute an offence in another country and carry it out in the second country?

 

Investigation, as laid down in the Code, briefly described above, does not provide for a joint investigation.  However, whenever investigations are conducted abroad in connection with a case under investigation in India, or in India in connection with the investigation of a case in a foreign country, it is possible for police agencies of India and the country concerned, subject to approval of the two Governments, to associate with each other and assist each other in identifying evidence available in their respective countries, which will facilitate its collection in accordance with the provisions of sections 166-A and 166-B of the Code. There is enough scope for purposeful, professional co-operation between the investigation agencies in this manner. This is the only way forward.