New Delhi: DCW has issued a notice to Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi seeking to know why no charge sheet has been filed by the force in connection with the rape of a four-year-old girl despite the passage of 90 days since the registration of the FIR in the case.
According to the notice issued by Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal, the Rape Crisis Cell of the Commission has received a complaint in this regard.
The FIR in the rape case was lodged at Keshav Puram police station on October 9 last year, it said. "I have been informed that the charge-sheet in this case has not been filed despite the passage of 90 days.
This is a serious issue as the accused has an absolute right to bail if the charge sheet is not filed within the prescribed period of 90 days in view of proviso (a) to Section 167(2) of CrPC.
"It should be noted that until proper and timely charge sheets are filed in rape cases, justice to victims will be denied," Maliwal said. The Commission has also issued a notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police concerned to ascertain the cause behind the delay in the submission of the charge sheet.
Maliwal, meanwhile, further said that the data received by the Commission in response to her earlier letter was "disturbing".
"It was informed that, in crimes against women, charge sheets are yet to be filed in 1,059 cases from 2012 (27.56 per cent of total cases registered), 3,218 cases in 2013 (34.71 per cent), 7,319 cases in 2014 (65.3 per cent) and 6,800 cases in 2015 (95.45 per cent). "Since 2012, 31,446 FIRs were registered of which charge sheets were filed only in 13,050 cases, i.e. only one-third of the cases.
From the data, it appears that non-filing of charge sheets is a chronic problem with Delhi Police," the DCW chief said.
