Team Blitz India
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Government, through the office of the Director General of Police (DGP), has issued guidelines to be followed by Investigating Officers (IOs) while seizing stolen/suspected property from bullion traders in the state as well as regarding the establishment of ‘Vigilance Committee’ to resolve the problems of bullion dealers.
As per the guidelines, the IOs have been instructed to solve the problems of bullion traders, a state level vigilance committee will be established at the level of the Director General of Police office as well as at each police commissionerate and district level.
The state-level committee would hold meeting once annually and police commissionerate and district level committees would hold meetings once every three months.
After arresting the accused in the crime of theft, the IOs will make a detailed inquiry about the stolen goods before the panchas. In the FIR, the description and weight of the stolen jewellery would be recorded in detail.
In the register kept by all bullion traders, the police officers would record the purpose of coming to the shop and the information about the crime under investigation and sign it.
If an investigation is to be done at a place outside the working area of an IO, then the officer would bring the issue to the notice of the concerned Vigilance Committee appointed by the District Superintendent of Police.
A thorough preliminary inquiry would be conducted to ascertain the involvement of the jeweller in the crime. The arrest would be done only after sufficient evidence is available and if the arrest is necessary during investigation.
Persons authorised by the association of bullion traders or two local witnesses will be allowed to be present at the time of search. If stolen goods are found in the possession of a jeweller, the police would properly confiscate the goods before the panchas.
Also, a copy of panchnama/seizure panchnama would be made available to the bullion merchant immediately in his shop and his signature would be obtained.
If it is found that a bullion dealer did not take the stolen property with any wrongdoing, he would be used as a witness against the accused. Traders who cooperate in the investigation would not be treated like criminals by the police authorities.
