HC worried over large number of vacancies in City police

The High Court on Friday expressed concern over the large number of vacancies in Bengaluru Police.

While hearing a petition, Justice A N Venugopala Gowda observed that the City's population is increasing due to the rapid urbanisation, and so is the crime rate.

The bench asked the Police department as to how they were planning to handle the situation in future, if 25 per cent of posts are lying vacant. The bench said that even if the department promised to fill the posts in the next 9-10 months, there will be many retirements, which again will create vacancies.

Lack of manpower in the department is having adverse effect on society. Due to lack of police personnel, there is a delay in the investigation and the prosecution, which is adding to pendency in various courts.

 The court further observed that there is manpower shortage in the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), again delaying investigations.

The bench also observed that ‘B’ report being filed in most of the cases is also disturbing.  There is a lack of co-ordination among the police department, the office of the State Public Prosecutor and the office of the Advocate General, the judge rued.

The affidavit filed by Raghavendra Auradkar, ADGP (Recruitment) stated that the total sanctioned strength in police department in the State is 99,180 while the actual strength is 73,440. So, 25,749 posts lying vacant. The affidavit further stated that in 2015-2016, about 2,442 posts will be filled and in 2016-2017, nearly 1,365 posts will be filled.

The bench said that the court would monitor recruitment process for the time being. The court directed the City Police Commissioner to hold meetings with the Deputy Commissioners of Police of various divisions to discuss the pendency of cases at various police stations, and submit a report in the next hearing on March 9.