Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Monday directed the immediate suspension of 372 Investigating Officers (IOs) across the state due to alleged insufficient action in FIRs that have been pending for over a year.
Vij also requested that the pending cases be reassigned to the respective deputy superintendents of police for final resolution within a month. In the event of non-compliance, he stated that appropriate action should be initiated against those officers as well.
Justifying the unprecedented move to issue instructions for the suspension of so many police officials in one go, Vij told reporters here, “People had been moving from pillar to post… For a long time I had been telling the officials to dispose of pending cases… This is a serious issue.”
In a letter sent to the Director General of Police on Monday, Vij has issued orders to suspend 372 IOs in various districts of the state, as stated in an official announcement.
These include 66 IOs from Sirsa, 60 from Gurugram, 57 from Yamunanagar, 32 from Faridabad, 31 from Karnal, 31 from Rohtak, 30 from Ambala, 24 from Jind, 14 from Hisar, 10 from Panchkula, nine from Sonipat, five from Rewari, and three from Panipat.
"I asked many times for early disposal of the FIRs registered in the state. Last month, I ordered that explanation be sought from all IOs who have not finalised/disposed of the FIRs in a year,” Vij said in the letter.
The home minister said that the number of such cases is above 3,000, which he said was “very high”.
"I am pained to know that despite my instruction, still 372 IOs are those who have not finally disposed of the cases and reason quoted by them are not satisfactory. They are making people move from one pillar to another to act on their complaints, he said, adding that this was “a very serious matter” that could not be ignored.
"I would like that all these Investigating Officers be put under suspension immediately and their cases be transferred to respective Deputy Superintendents of Police for final disposal within a month, otherwise action will be taken against those officers also,” he added.
Vij told reporters that in May this year, the police department informed him that there were 3,029 cases that were pending for more than a year, and their final disposal had not yet been done.
"I wrote to the department seeking an explanation from the concerned personnel why cases were not being disposed of, as this was causing inconvenience to people who had to move from pillar to post.
"The department gave me information that explanations had been sought, but as many as 372 IOs failed to give a satisfactory explanation,” he said.
