NEW DELHI: In the wake of series of incidents of vandalism in the last few years, leading to the destruction of public and private property, the Centre is mulling a few amendments in some sections of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act to help fix responsibility for effective prosecution of those participating in unlawful assembly, riot or public disorder.
The Union Home Ministry (MHA) has recently prepared a draft for amendments in Section 321, 82 A of CrPC and 111 B of Indian Evidence Act and sent this proposal to the Law Ministry for its opinion.
”The proposed amendment will help admissibility of images and video recordings captured on cellular phones besides CCTV footages during riots or public disorder as a primary evidence for prosecution,” a Home Ministry source said here.
Section 82 of the CrPC relates to proclamation of an absconding accused while Section 321 pertains to withdrawal of an accused from prosecution by the state.
Section 111A deals with prosecution of guilty in certain cases. Sources said that the Centre proposes to shift the burden of proof to the accused and make prosecution of the people participating in unlawful assemblies or public disorder effectively in proposed amendment in Section 111B.
“The amendments are required to make these laws effective enough to curb the tendency of anybody and everybody joining ongoing violent riots.
The agencies had suggested a relook at the Section 321 and 82 A of the CrPC and the Evidence Act following which the proposal was discussed in the Home Ministry.
Subsequently, the proposal relating to it was forwarded to the Law Ministry for comments. We are awaiting a response from the Law Ministry,” a senior Union Home Ministry official said.
The official further said the amendments are aimed at strengthening prosecution of cases relating to violent riots and improve the conviction rates in such cases.
Once an opinion is received from the Law Ministry, a draft Bill incorporating the amendments will be formulated for vetting by the Parliament, the official added.
As of now, the electronic evidences like telephonic conversation, messages on social media platforms, videos recorded by the mobile phones, are considered as secondary evidences and the prosecution has to corroborate it with other supporting evidences.
If the proposed amendments are incorporated in the Act, this will help the prosecution in getting the accused convicted faster.
The Supreme Court, taking note of destruction of the public property during hartal, public rallies, dharnas or any public disorder, had earlier issued a slew of directions to fix the responsibility for the damage of public and private property by such riot and mob. (AGENCIES)
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