A Delhi court has pulled up the police for not updating records of the cases pending against under-trial prisoners (UTPs), saying the time has come for them to sharpen their technological skills

Additional Sessions Judge Sonu Agnihotri directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to update the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) data of the Judicial District South-East and file a compliance report by August 11. Get updated SCRB record of Judicial District South-East so that in future, bail applications of UTPs are not delayed because of not knowing the present status of cases pending against UTPs along with replies to bail applications of UTPs, the judge said in an order dated July 26.

ASJ Agnihotri also observed that involvement reports of UTPs as per SCRB record are generally not updated and time is usually sought by the police officials to verify the updated case status which leads to unnecessary delay in disposal of the bail applications.

He further said that in today’s world when almost every information is available on click of a mouse, it is pathetic that Delhi Police is still not updating its record regularly on account of which disposal of bail applications of accused or UTPs are delayed. I think the time has come for Delhi Police to sharpen its skills so far as implementation of technology is concerned, the Additional Sessions Judge said. The issue of outdated case records arose during the hearing of a bail application in a matter pertaining to the alleged robbery.

During the hearing, Additional Public Prosecutor F M Ansari cited the report of accused Surender filed by one Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) and said that he is involved in seven more cases. Advocate Rizwan Ali, counsel for the accused, however apprised the court that trial is underway in only three matters, and in the rest of the cases, he has either been acquitted or discharged.

On being enquired, the ASI said that he is not aware of the exact status of cases pending against the accused and that the ‘involvement report’ filed by him was on the basis of the record maintained by the SCRB. He then sought an adjournment in the matter. Dismissing ASI’s request, the court granted bail to Surender and directed the copy of the order be sent to the Delhi Police Commissioner for information and compliance.