In our criminal Jurisprudence a person accused for an offence shaft be presumed to be innocent so long as he or she is not proved guilty by legal evidence beyond all reasonable doubt. The doctrine of reasonable doubt plays vital role in our legal system as a safeguard against conviction of the innocent person meaning thereby that even ten accused may be acquitted but not a single innocent person should be convicted. Here though it is expected that no crime should go unpunished — the extents law zealously guards the values of civil liberties of citizenry. It insists that the prosecution — in order to secure conviction of an accused^ must present acceptable evidence. A Judge will exclude from his consideration a piece of evidence that have been improperly obtained or received. In this context it is worthwhile to mention that statements made before, police under section 161 Cr PC is not acceptable while that made before magistrate under section 164 Cr PC is admissible in trial. This has of course given scope to question the efficacy of investigative agencies, performance, which presents a diabolical picture and deserves thorough reconsideration indeed.

A special mention need be made here that for the purpose of protecting social order and peace by preventing prejudicial activities against the state, the Special Powers Act, 1974 was enacted. There are lot of arguments and criticism for and against this, which curtails the fundamental rights of the citizen. Instances are not rare when Government sometime use the provision of the law arbitrarily — though subsequently certain modifications were made. Meanwhile the Supreme Court took commendable stand in checkmating arbitrary arrest and detention by granting anticipatory bails and directing the release of some detainees forthwith. However peoples demand for repeal of black laws remains as before.

"Justice Delayed Justice Denied" is oft repeated proverb — again during martial Law another phraseology was commonly used "Justice Hurried Justice Buried." The whole drama of criminal proceedings ends with the verdict of the court in which the po-lice/investigator. the witness, the prosecutor and the Judge/magistrate play their respective role. Judge is the keeper of the conscience of society and prosecutors and defence lawyers are there to help them to come to correct decision

tnrough intricate battle of wit to thrash out the evidence and establish the truth — which may not necessarily be whole truth. However, in passing the sentences the court must have regard to the nature of offences, status of accused and overall ends of justice in all fairness of things. The crux of fair justice lies in fair investigation, fair conduct of trial by prosecution and defence, proper application of law and impartial decision in the delivery of judgement.

But certain basic difficulties are the real hindrances like inadequate manpower for investigation — who are mostly busy for protocol duties, lack of modern equipment to help solve the detection, public apathy to law enforcement, Eiarochial appointment of pubic prosecutor, back-log of cases, (both in lower and High Court) non supervision of court proceedings, unnecessary adjournment, willful absence of the witness — unusual delay to get report from the lone chemical laboratory for the whole country. Magistrate's otherwise involvements, dearth of courts and logistics, certain inherent deficiencies in laws and rules made during colonial regime-fraudulent practice of evil mongers in arena of Judicial process. insufficient budget provision and above all the vested irt-terests of the party in power and the opposition too.

Counter Measures to Improve and Enhance

Remedial Aspects

These day's economic crimes like bribery, corruption is increasing at a faster rate and getting organized deep-rooted and systematized. In some cases, the practices go far beyond the national geographic limit. And with the expansion of foreign aid and investment the vested groups are bent upon to reap the harvest themselves. And it is needless to say that instead of sustainable growth and development for the vulnerable segments the rich is becoming richer and vast majority are often deprived of the benefits of the so-oalled Pro-poor Agenda. A disproportionate burden of the misery of poverty falls upon women and children. As a corollary there have been innumerable Instances of illegal trafficking of women and children across the border.

Constitution has an explicit "Social Equity" Clause under article 19 (2) — but practically one of the difficult problem is the very real gap between formal legal equality between citizens and the real inequality in their actual conditions. Thus UNDP in their report states that "absence of an accountable sys-

tem of democracy and good governance" as a major cause of poverty" They also identified law and order as one of the priorities under good governance. Equal protection of law needs equal reasonable opportunities to access to the course of law. Otherwise justice remains a myth. "Justice is always advantageous to the rich" is equally applicable here. Major imbalance in progress often causes conflict among people and thereby increases unhappiness and restive environment.

The study also noted that one of the fundamental problems was the dissonance between laws and their implementation. Good laws remain in the books only and rarely

implemented. Fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and internationally adopted human rights are also hardly translated into reality. All such sacred covenants to which the country is signatory must be implemented so that society does not fell into the a of few terrorist and politi-

goons who are often immune to commit violence anywhere they like.

There have been some awareness amongst the public for improvement of the cycle of crime and the judicial process and good many steps are in hand of the Govt authorities for the purpose. To highlight some of these the followings are worth mentioning.

Ministry of Home Affairs has given serious thought to induct women police more actively in the investigation for

better detection of cases-specially in handling the women accused.

Police personnel mostly busy for multifarious non — police job-hence the question of investigating police is being considered who should concentrate in criminal cases only.

Family Court has also been set up to settle the disparities between husband and wife-which also reduce the load in police stations and Courts. Local Government Institutes capacity building has been geared up to strengtneri the Law and Judicial aspects too.

Parliament and Law Ministry has set up Law Commission and Judicial Training In-stltute respectively to update

the laws and to enlighten the Judicial officers with the new laws and convention. Steps are being taken to increase the number of chemical Laboratory, Juvenile Remand Home, and Courts for Violence Against Women and Separate Courts Metropolitan areas.

Besides new courts are being set up for Metropolitan cities to dispose of the cases only within the jurisdiction of metropolitan.

Besides Govt has appreciated the endeavors of NGOs working in the relevant fields to made the concerned agencies more sensitized for these vulnerable issues and consequently awareness creation and capacity building is progressing more than before to work hand in hand for common purpose to have a crime free society.

Towards Effective General Preventive Measures

There are many value systems in a changing world. Sometime we think of our obligation to care for the old and provide them social security with useful work and recreational facilities. As senior citizens they do deserve special consideration and hence care for the aging, elderly, infirm and handicapped need to be ensured. All possible modes of cooperation between Govt and Non-Govt. organisation be explored to provide timely services in these fields. Law is there but perhaps special task force is needed to ensure that these are implemented desir-

ably well and the civil society i.e. community as a whole and the media in particular can do a lot to attain the cherished goal of humanity's two precious flowers 'Security and Freedom' and that will help ensure the function of legal frame work on a sound institutional arrangement and capacity building for implementation of the desirable aspirations of the vulnerable groups and the most disadvantaged ones.

The increasing mobility of the population and the growing communication and financial links among different countries of the developing and developed world and internationalization have caused significant change in criminality. For such transnational criminal activities all concerned agencies could put their heads together but lack of extradition treaty

amongst various countries have posed in serious problems. If not possible to go for formal treaties al least some sort of mutual understanding among the International, Regional. Sub regional cooperation through bilateral, multilateral schemes could lead the path of ultimate goal. To cite example Bangladesh and Thailand has already implemented extradition treaty and there are already some sorts of agreement with Myanmar and Iran particularly tor drug related offenders.

In the context of present day law enforcement and Judicial process perhaps majority of the taxpayers do want a change and here comes the concept of private security services. Familiar practices are disappearing and in their place unprecedented for productive and efficient client oriented services have become the need of the hour. And today security industry is growing tremendously fast and they all have the objective to be suitable complementary services with transparency to the users for their expectations. Many of them are actively engaged in law enforcement responsibilities as an alternate force specially in the private sector e.g. industrial, project, multinational organisation even in the protection of the VIP/CIP of these domains.

Perhaps the important aspect of retribution and punishment deserves to be reconsidered. The offenders are punished because it is unavoidable and to eradicate the evils from . the society. Instead of jail many countries (as in Japan) call it correction institute for making the inmates repentant so that they can join their family and contribute their mite as normal citizen. Perhaps the phrase "hate the sin" — not the sinner" needs to be reminded so that the social stigma is not made permanent to the inmates of prison lest they become recidivist and that make the situation worse. With that end in view the significance of prison administration could be a necessary and healthy adjunct of crime prevention and treatment of offenders. The concept of prison administration as institutional device for correction and rehabilitation is gaining ground and deserves more serious but immediate attention from the legislative, executive or judicial policy makers and social thinkers and experts thereof.

The writer a former Inspector General of Police is President ACPF, Bangladesh.