The Criminal Investigation Department is the Intelligence Bureau for the Police Department and in a position to supply Government with first information on all matters of political, administrative or general interest.
The Department was originally in charge of a Special Superintendent of Police with headquarters at Shillong and divided into the following branches:
(i) The Investigation Branch.
(ii) The Intelligence Branch.
(iii) The Special Branch.
(iv) The Finger Print Bureau.
The exact date of starting of the CID is not definitely known. However, the first volume of the D.O. book has an entry dated 1.5.1922. It is seen in the D.O. book that each and every entry is signed either by the Special Superintendent of Police or by a senior Gazetted Officer or the P.A. of S.S.P.
Some interesting signatures of Police officers are available, some of which are legible and some inllegible. Among the early legible signatures we came across the names of Mr. Ballantine and Mr. J.E. Reid.
Subsequently, the Special Branch was bifurcated from the C.I.D. The details of orders and exact date are again not available. However from the D.O. book entries the names of personnel transferred from the C.I.D. to the Special Branch is available as 29.4.1965 and 1.5.1965, quoting orders of the IGP, Assam, No. Police/65/31 dated 6th April,1965 and No.Police/65/36 dated 6th April,1965. From this list it is observed that quite a few personnel belonged to the Pakistan infiltration wing.
After separation of Special Branch from C.I.D. both departments functioned separately in Shillong. Subsequently, the State of Meghalaya came into existence in 1972 and the capital of Assam shifted to Guwahati. The C.I.D. also shifted to Guwahati but did not have a building of its own. As such a rented house was used for the C.I.D. The office could not be located in one building but was spread in two or three different buildings. Further, due to various reasons the office had to be shifted from one place to another. Some of the locations of the C.I.D. were as follows :
1) Ganeshguri (Feb.,1973).
2) Lachitnagar (March, 1975).
3) Ulubari, behind Bora Service (December 1992).
4) Mathura Nagar (October,1994).
Finally the C.I.D. shifted to its own permanent building at Ulubari in January, 1998.
The jurisdiction of a Criminal Investigation Department officer in Assam for the purpose of the investigation of cases is the whole province of Assam. (Vide paragraph 882 of the Assam Police Gazette, dated, the lst November, 1913).
The objectives initially appear to have been to co-operate between the police of different districts and of different provisions, to check crime, to secure detection and arrest wanted criminals, to trace property stolen and recovered and to act as an agency for disseminating intelligence likely to aid police in their work.
"One of the main purposes of the department is to deal effectively with organised crime, and the efficiency of the department in this respect depends upon the training of officers to be expert in dealing with special classes of crime, such as coining , poisoning, fraud, dacoity, smuggling etc. Whenever at headquarters and not otherwise employed, officers should devote their time to studying the office records of crime and criminals with a view to assimilating all the information that is available."
It is the responsibility of all officers at all times to collect the following information:
1) Rumours or published opinions likely to disturb the public peace or the feeling of the people towards the Government.
2) Popular feeling on political, religious or other subjects of general interest and the circulation of letters of secret signals likely to disturb the public peace or stir up racial feelings.
3) Information regarding political leaders or movements or publications.
4) Current opinion regarding Government policy or Government laws and measures.
5) Tampering with the Army or with the Police by political agitators.
6) The doings of known political agitators.
7) Instances of religious excitement or industrial strikes.
8) The formation of trade unions or guilds by any caste or class or any combination calculated to affect the relations between employees and employers of labour.
9) The doings of suspicious strangers or foreigners.
The primary role of the CID, Assam is to monitor the criminal investigation, guide the Investigating officers and to investigate important cases, more so cases having inter-State ramification. Presently, it has the following cells to deal with:
The special cell was constituted in 1992 to monitor Narcotic & Drugs related crime. The cell also exercises vigilance over the drug trafficking in the State as well as in Guwahati City in particular.
In order to tackle crime involving women, a Special Cell for monitoring and co-ordinating investigation of cases of crimes against women and immoral traffic have been functioning in the C.I.D. since 1994 under the direct supervision of the DIG(CID), Assam, Guwahati.
This Cell has been doggedly supervising all the important cases all over the State involving crime against women. Thorough supervision and constant monitoring and progress of investigation of offences like dowry death, rape, immoral trafficking in women keep the Cell busy.
C.I.D. has also taken over investigation of many cases of physical violence against women and successfully investigated the same. Realising its commitment to the society, this Cell has resolved to curb social menaces like prostitution and dowry deaths. The cell has also conducted raids in hotels, restaurants, private houses, beauty parlours etc. and arrested many offenders to book.
This Cell has been instrumental in setting up a Family Counselling Centre at the C.I.D. HQ since 15th September, 1997 in consultation with the Social Welfare Department. This Centre has a Counsellor, who provides counselling to estranged couples after thorough case study. The main objective of the Counselling Centre is to reduce family and marital disputes, atrocities on women and alcholism, etc. So far, the counselling Centre has taken up many cases, of which it has been able to sort out marital discord in quite a few cases.
A CID Police Station has started functioning from 1-11-1997 vide Govt. Letter No. HMC 3/93/7 dtd. 24-10-97. This enables CID to register important cases after preliminary enquiry has been made.
The State Finger Print Bureau is functioning in the CID helps in investigation and in prosecution of cases. Chance prints left by the culprits at the time of commission of crime are used to prove their culpability in the crime. The development and identification of the prints help in establishing physical presence of culprit(s) at the scene of crime. On many occasions the Finger Print experts furnished identical opinions playing a pivotal role in detection of crime and bringing the culprits to book. This Bureau not only assists the State Police but also renders assistance to other organisation. The Finger print experts of this Bureau successfully assisted CRPF in detection of fraudulent withdrawal of money meant for construction of roads.
Considering the importance of quality of investigation of crime, this organisation has been organising in service training courses for investigating officers since 1997. CID has also organised training courses on Anti drugtraffiking and Drug law Enforcement for senior management level Police officers and middle management level Police Officers for the last few years. The organisation has been receiving financial assistance for the NCB for conducting such courses.