Opinion ID: 785392
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Criminal Process in India

Text: 8 As summarized by the appellee, the initial phases of criminal process in India bear many similarities to our own. When a crime is committed, a First Information Report, or FIR, is prepared by the Head Constable or other authorized officer in the police station having territorial jurisdiction over the offense. The FIR sets forth the facts regarding the case and the specific violation of the Indian Penal Code and other statutes. FIRs are prepared only for serious crimes like murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. After they are prepared, an investigation is conducted by officers of the police station. In the case of serious crimes, when sufficient evidence has been gathered to form a reasonable basis to believe a crime has been committed by the accused, a document known as a challan is prepared by the station house officer. 9 Challans are then presented to the district attorney, whose duty is to review them and to ascertain whether there is sufficient evidence to obtain a judicial verdict against the accused. The qualifying challans are then filed with the Judicial Magistrate Courts in the sub district responsible for the police station where each case was initiated and investigated. This filing is accomplished by the prosecuting agencies who, in accordance with Indian law and other relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, submit the complete case files to the judicial magistrate for trial. 10 The challans supporting the case against Barapind and prepared according to this process were presented to the prosecuting agency, the District Attorney of Jalandhar District, State of Punjab. The District Attorney reviewed the challans to ascertain the sufficiency of the included evidence to obtain a judicial verdict against the accused. District Attorney of Jalandhar S.K. Kapoor made a sufficiency finding for every challan asserting charges against Barapind. 11 After the District Attorney certified the challans, the cases were filed with Judicial Magistrate Courts in the sub districts of Jalandhar. The filing was completed for Barapind's trial when the District Attorney submitted the case files to Judicial Magistrates in accordance with section 173 of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code. The judicial magistrate issued arrest warrants for Barapind for all of the crimes that predicate the extradition request. This request for extradition followed in due course.