LAHORE, Nov 11: Life risk and lengthy police and court proceedings keep independent witnesses away and, in a way, help hardened criminals secure bail and acquittal.

Police depends on oral evidence to get a criminal convicted from a court of law than circumstantial evidence. Lack of resources and modern techniques of investigation are the main reasons of police dependence on witnesses.

Senior police officers say their efforts to cut crime rate are defeated when a witness fails to appear before a court. They may be right, but who will dare risk his life when he is threatened by the accomplices of criminals.

Official record shows the killing of the witnesses, not only in crime against property but also in old rivalries, is rising alarmingly. Over a dozen witnesses have been killed in Lahore this year.

Police officers claim the crime of eliminating witnesses started in the early 1990s by underworld lords. Of them, Hanifa and his brother Shafiqa Baba, Humayun Gujjar, Bhola Sunyara and Naji Butt are considered the pioneers of starting this outrage.

Police admits that it is not humanly possible to provide security to every witness and complainant.

So far as court hassles are concerned, a police officer says, they are largely due to lawyers’ attitude. Defence lawyers, he says, seek frequent adjournments when they see that the other side is all prepared to have witnesses examined. Sometimes, it also happens that due to a lengthy list of cases to be heard by a judge in a day it becomes impossible to record the statements of the witnesses. Sometimes, the judge goes on leave.

These circumstances usually discourage witnesses. No-one has time on hand to be present on every date of hearing, he says.

Another reason which helps criminals escape punishment is the lack of interest on the part of complainants after their stolen goods are recovered.

The Punjab police record shows that almost 100 per cent of the criminals, especially those accused of crimes against property, strike again after their release.

More than 688 robbers, carjackers, thieves and motorcycle lifters have alone been acquitted from Lahore courts in the last two years.

Some 256 of the criminals were acquitted last year and 139 this year when no witness turned up. Seventeen were released last year and eight this year when police failed to hold identification parade, 78 and 26 when witnesses changed their statements, 51 and 21 when complainants stopped pursuing the cases, 41 and 18 when police filed incomplete cases, eight and five when nothing was recovered from the criminals.

Police officers say in the cases involving hardened criminals, especially those accused of crimes against property, the courts have to acquit ‘criminals’ due to disappearance of witnesses, and the police department is held responsible for it.

They say that a majority of the members of gangs of robbers and carjackers arrested this year had earlier been held on a number of occasions. But, they were released when witnesses failed to turn up to depose against them.

OFFICIAL VERSION: Lahore SSP Aftab Cheema says a majority of the complainants and witnesses do not turn up to record their statements in courts after their looted property is recovered.