While informing the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it has not been able to arrest a fugitive pro-Khalistan preacher, the Punjab government said Amritsar Rural police has issued a âhue and cry noticeâ against him.
Police issues a ‘hue and cry notice’ when it requires help of public in cases such as:
- locating missing persons,
- identifying unclaimed bodies,
- looking out for a suspect.
Origin:
- In policing terms, the phrase traces its origin to 1285 when Englandâs King Edward I signed the âStatute of Winchesterâ to deal with security and peacekeeping on a local level by revamping the existing police system.
- The âhue and cryâ rule simply meant that if a suspect or a criminal was running down the street in front of some bystanders, then each of them had to yell to help the police identify and catch them.
- Police rules in several states, including Punjab, have âhue and cry noticesâ as a legal procedure in their rulebooks.
- Hue and cry notice was broadly an English translation of âishtihar-e-shor-e-gogaâ, one of the many Urdu phrases which Punjab Police continue to use in its daily procedures after partition in 1947.
- In current times, Punjab Police issues âishtihar-e-shor-e-gogaâ in newspapers in case of missing persons and unidentified bodies.
SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB