Written by: Express News Service
2 min readLucknowMar 6, 2010 02:53 AM IST
First published on: Mar 6, 2010 at 02:53 AM IST
The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB),which guards the Indo-Nepal border,has been given powers of the police and other investigating agencies under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The force has been authorised to initiate legal action against persons involved in nefarious activities within 15 kilometres of the border. It can arrest an accused without warrant,search any place while pursuing an offender anywhere in the country,seize suspected property or weapons and take necessary action to prevent crimes and injury to public property.
The SSB Frontier Headquarters of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in Lucknow has recently received a notification in this regard from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The notification is applicable to SSB personnel posted on the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders in Uttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh,Bihar,West Bengal,Sikkim,Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Anil Agrawal,SSB Lucknow Frontier Inspector General,said: “The authority given to the SSB would help in the effective enforcement of law. Earlier,there were constraints while initiating action against offenders,as we were dependent on the local police even after receiving information from the SSB’s intelligence wing.”
Now,the personnel can take necessary legal action — they have the power to deal with crime and criminals active near the border,he added.
According to the notification,officers of the rank of assistant sub-inspector and above can now exercise powers under relevant sections of the CrPC to apply civil force to deal with any unlawful assembly in the absence of an executive magistrate.
Besides,they have got powers under Sections 41 (2),48,53 and 100 of CrPC related to the arrest of suspected offenders,pursuit of offenders in other jurisdictions,medical examination of the accused and search of a closed place and ingress thereto. Moreover,they can arrest any person without warrant,search a place,frisk an arrested offender,seize weapons and suspected property.
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