Chandigarh, June 20 (IANS) In the wake of increasing cases of cops misbehaving with the public and their reluctance to register complaints, the union territory (UT) administration has decided to set up a Police Complaint Authority (PCA).
‘We have received many complaints from the city residents against various police officials. But we have realized that there is no outright authority to deal with such complaints that leads to delay in justice. In many cases, victims are afraid of approaching senior police officials,’ a senior official of the Chandigarh administration, requesting anonymity, told IANS Sunday.
‘Therefore, UT administration has approved the proposal of setting up the PCA and it will start functioning within the next few weeks. It will deal with people’s grievances, who are harassed by police in one way or the other,’ he added.
According to the official, PCA will be headed by a retired judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court and there will be three retired IPS officers, including a woman official, as its members.
‘Right now, it is not possible to comment on the exact number of complaints that we have received against police. But certainly we have observed a surge in the numbers in the last few months. Majority of the complaints are related to police inaction in economic offence-related cases,’ the official said.
