Double jeopardy for absconders

Delhi police has increased the reward amount for catching proclaimed offenders, following a High Court direction

Delhi police has increased the reward amount for catching proclaimed offenders, following a High Court direction

Life has just got harder for those who are evading arrest and declared proclaimed offenders. The Delhi Police has doubled the reward on the head of each absconding criminal as part of its plan to rein-in 13,521 proclaimed offenders.

Delhi Commissioner of Police YS Dadwal has issued instructions to this effect while acting on a Delhi High Court direction to chalk out a plan to arrest those on the run.

Court diktat
On January 8, the Delhi High court had observed that many such offenders are those who have jumped bail and that out of the 13,521 people around 4500 of them were involved in heinous offences where the punishment was more than seven years.

"It is quite an achievement to arrest the proclaimed offenders. There are criminals who do not fear the law and have jumped bail. Most of the times the cops have to put their lives on the line while arresting the hardened proclaimed offenders. Doubling the incentive will surely provide motivation to the police officials to trace these offenders," said a senior police official.

Special teams

Legal definition

The expression "proclaimed offender" includes any person proclaimed as an offender by any Court or authority in any territory in India to which this Code does not extend, in respect of any act which if committed in the territories to which this Code extends, would be an offence punishable under any of the following sections of the Indian Penal Code,(45 of 1860) namely, 302, 304, 382, 392 to 399 (both inclusive), 402, 435, 436, 449, 450 and 457 to 460 (both inclusive)

Apart from increasing the prize money, the police have also formed special teams in every district of the city who will go out of station in search of these criminals. They will also collaborate with other police teams to keep an eye over them.

Amulya Patnaik, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) said, " We have a very well established system in place to track the proclaimed offenders. We keep a regular record of such criminals. We have also fine-tuned the system in many ways.
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The newly formed special teams will visit other states and track the offenders. They will also sensitize other police officials in the states and keep them informed about the whereabouts of the offenders."

The reward
Previously, police officials who arrested proclaimed offenders were paid Rs. 500 and the amount was increased to Rs 1000-5000, depending on individual cases.
In the first week of January, the High Court had observed that many accused were either not apprehended or absconded during the pendency of the trial. A division bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ajit Bharihoke had noted, "The need of the hour is to have a proper system in place to ensure that there is follow-up action to locate such absconding accused and there is a periodic review of the same."