Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Caste certificate verification given by the Caste Security Committee to police has been caught between 'inquiry' and 'investigation' procedures. A total of 210 verifications are pending with SPs across the state and their results are unlikely to come.
The cases wherein people try to grab government jobs by furnishing fake or dubious caste certificates are increasing in the state.
This can be gauged from the fact that since the constitution of the state-level scrutiny committee, tasked with the responsibility to check caste certificates, as many as 881 cases have been cross-checked.
Out of them, 517 cases were rejected. Only 364 cases were recognised by the committee.
As far as pending cases are concerned, the committee has not received investigation reports from SPs of different districts in 210 cases. The police lack the power to 'investigate' a case until they receive a formal complaint or an FIR.
Police Headquarters (PHQ) officials are aware of the issue, but neither the SPs took the courage to ask the PHQ nor did the PHQ issue orders in this regard. Thus , files remain pending without any redressal.
Investigation and inquiry
An investigation is a systematic, executive process to collect facts and evidence, while an inquiry is a broader or judicial process to determine the truth or gain understanding.
Conducting authority: An investigation is handled by police officers or authorised non-judicial investigators.
Whereas an inquiry is conducted by a magistrate, judge, or a formal court or tribunal (in a legal context).
An investigation gathers physical and circumstantial evidence to figure out what happened and who is responsible. An inquiry seeks general knowledge, clarifies doubts, or tests the truth or falsity of facts.
Police can only conduct investigations
And for the investigation, the police need a complainant, and after completing the investigation, the police register an FIR in the case and put the charge sheet before the court for the next action.
But if the complaint is not present, the police cannot inquire, because it clashes with the jurisdiction limits of the police department, said one of the officers on condition of anonymity.
Recent cases
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has registered a case against former IPS officer Raghuveer Singh Meena because he had allegedly used a fake caste certificate to obtain police service.
The Special Task Force (STF) is investigating several cases in which the candidates had used fake caste certificates and had got government jobs.
