PROSECUTE THE SUSPECT

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WHEN TO PROSECUTE THE SUSPECT.

Duncan Abeynayaka – LLB, Attorney At Law

 

CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT

120.

(1) Every investigation under this Chapter shall be completed without unnecessary delay. Where such investigation cannot be completed within fifteen days the officer in charge of the police station or the inquirer shall transmit to the Magistrate's Court having jurisdiction in the case, a report of the facts and the progress of the investigation at the end of the fifteen days and thereafter at the end of every period of fifteen days until completion of the investigation.

(2) The detention ordered under subsection (3) of section 115 shall be for periods of fifteen days at a time.

(3) As soon as the investigation is completed the officer in charge of the police station shall forward to such court a report in the prescribed form. If in the report there is no allegation that the suspect has committed or been concerned in the committing of any offence the Magistrate shall discharge him. If the report alleges that the suspect has committed or been concerned in committing an offence he shall be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

 

01. TUNNAYA ALIAS GUNAPALA,V. OFFICER IN CHARGE, POLICE STATION, GALEWELA 1993 1SLR 61

When a suspect is produced before a Magistrate under Section 116 (1) of the Code in respect of a non-bailable offence it is necessary for the Magistrate to make an order for the detention of the suspect until the final report under Section 120 of the Code is filed. This he can do under the provisions of Section 120 (1) and the investigation can continue. A final report made under Section 120 will be filed upon conclusion of the investigation. It is to be noted that Section 115 (3) does not permit a Magistrate to release on bail in the first instance a person arrested for the offence of murder.

This means he must make a consequential order of detention when a suspect is produced in custody in connection with an alleged murder under Section 116 (1). The point is that one is still at the investigative stage when a suspect is forwarded under custody to the Court in terms of Section 116 (1). It is wrong to treat it as an automatic institution of proceedings.

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