Crime Investigation in Developing Countries: Coordination and Collaboration of Investigators and Prosecutors

The safety of a society, by way of getting all necessary arrangements for unfailing protection and preservation of individual's liberty and rights relating to his/her person and property, is the fundamental goal of criminal justice, and for this reason it has been regarded as an indispensable system of peace and order. In achieving this goal, criminal justice system uses multi-pronged processes—investigation prosecution, and adjudication which exist as independent jurisdictions but function as one 'integrated system.' The final outcome appears in one of the two forms—i.e. either the suspect is declared 'guilty' or he/she is 'innocent'. Criminal justice system by application of this process, reaching to the state of conviction and making the offender subjected to a system of punishment, functions as an effective instrument of 'deterring potential offenders', thus guaranteeing an effective system of preventing transgression in person or property of one individual by other individual2.
Looking from this pragmatic point of view 3, the criminal justice system in a society, which generally holds the faith on democratic function of State and affirms a deeply rooted trust in principle of the inalienability of fundamental rights of individuals, resolutely and meticulously follows some principles as 'indispensable or inevitable' components for building a worthy criminal justice system4. These principles are (a) the corpus delicti5 is the primary fact and evidence for driving the process of justice to a dependable conclusion, and the corpus delicti is identified by way of resorting to the process of scientific examination or inquest of the crime scene; (b) the relation between corpus delecti and the offender is established by the scientific examination or scrutiny of the objects, exhibits or traces found in the crime scene; (c) the analysis of evidences is carried out for generating reasoning for appropriate indictment leading to the prosecution; and (d) the relation between the corpus delecti and the law is established, thus the authenticity, reasonability and validity of reason is confirmed.
The criminal justice system follows a 'systematically designed course of action in its operation', and this course of action is guided by certain other inevitable principles. These principles are (a) the fairness in all aspects of procedure; (b) the impartiality in attitude of applying procedures; and (c) the use of judicial mind while adopting decisions or interpreting findings. Failure to consider these principles will necessarily result in violation of the fair trial. The principle of fairness and impartiality in criminal proceeding are taken as two important attributes of the criminal justice system of a democratic society. These two components represent ' the concept of rule of law' in the context of criminal justice. The fairness and impartiality, in turn, require due attention for application or operation of the several other principles relating the procedure, which not only make the criminal justice system in that society properly functional but also makes its result duly credible and trustworthy. These principles6 are (a) that the burden of proof lies on the prosecutors and so that the charge must be proved beyond reasonable doubt7; (b) that the right of suspect to acquire adequate and competent legal defense by professional representation is fully guaranteed8, which includes right to get interpreter9 in the case if he/she does not understand the language in which the charge has been put forth; (c) no suspect can be pressed to confess that he/she has committed crime and thus use of coercion or deceptive interrogation for extraction of confession renders the same as inadmissible evidence10; (d) a suspect must be presumed innocent until the concerned judicial authority has declared him/her guilty; and (e) no suspect can be charged twice in the same crime, so that an arrest and detention made under such circumstance will make such arrest and detention illegal and improper.

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