Mumbai police: Court not taking Covid-19 violation charge sheets

City cops, who worked hard to enforce Covid rules, say probe in all violations is over, but court is not submitting the charge sheets because of other pending cases

The court is refusing to submit charge sheets filed against the violators of Covid-19 rules, say Mumbai police who worked overtime over the past two years, enforcing the pandemic-related curbs and guidelines, and even lost 123 personnel to the disease.

Under the instructions of the state and the central governments, the city police took action against people disobeying the measures imposed to contain the spread of the deadly Coronavirus. They arrested thousands under relevant Sections of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act. After completing investigations in all the violations, they recently filed charge sheets in the court, but it allegedly refused to submit them, citing pendency of the ongoing cases.

Most cases in central region

According to police sources, from April 5, 2021, to January 4, 2022, more than 29,000 Covid-19 violation cases were registered in the five regions of the Mumbai city. The central region registered 6,622 cases, the North 6,564, the South 6,119, the East 5,449 and the West 5,035. The figure would exceed 40,000 if numbers from 2020 are included, said sources.

A police officer from the North region said, "More than a thousand cases were registered in our police station in the past two years. We prepared the charge sheets, but the court refused to submit them, saying that it already had many pending cases and that there was no space to store the papers."

He added that in some cases, the court asked to present the accused while submitting the charge sheet, but it still refused to take the submission. There is a judgment and an order of the Supreme Court stating that it is not mandatory in some cases for the accused to be in the court while submitting the charge sheet, and nowhere in the CrPC this is mentioned, he said. Police officers of other regions also have the same complaint.

'We have to take action'

Another officer said, “During the pandemic, hundreds of Mumbai police personnel lost their lives. Now, with the virus spreading rapidly again, there could be a lockdown. If senior officers are directed to file cases for violations again, we will have to take action."

According to the CrPC, the charge sheet in cases where there is provision of only fines should be filed within six months. It is mandatory to submit the charge sheet within one or two years for the offences that are punishable with one or two years of jail.

In most of the Covid-19 violations, cases were registered under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by the public servant), 269 (unlawfully or negligently, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life), and 270 (whoever malignantly does any act which is...likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) of the IPC.

"Tomorrow, the court will ask us why we didn't file the charge sheet on time? We are getting in trouble from both our higher officers for not taking action and filing the charge sheet, and the court for filing the charge sheet," the officer said.

"The court is also not accepting charge sheets of accused arrested under Section 122 (being found under suspicious circumstances between sunset and sunrise) of the Mumbai Police Act. The court says that there are so many pending cases of bodily offences that there is no time to look into these cases," said another officer.

29k
No. of cases filed from April 5, 2021, to Jan 4, 2022

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