In 2014, the Supreme Court, noticing the number of acquittals in criminal cases, had directed state home departments to formulate methods to pull up investigating police officers for the same, giving a deadline of six months for setting up of a committee to monitor this. It's 2018 now and not a single officer in Maharashtra has been held responsible for acquittals, reply to an RTI query has revealed. While the committee the apex court wanted set up exists in some districts, most are unaware about the SC direction.

A scrambling state home department, on June 12, issued a letter (a copy of which is with mid-day) to the state DGP, highlighting the SC direction. It states the committee formation should be done at the earliest, or else the state government may have to face consequences. Advocate Rajeshwar Panchal, who is contemplating filing a PIL in Bombay High Court, said, "Every acquittal in a criminal case should be understood as a failure of the justice delivery system — either an innocent was framed or a habitual offender set free in the society — and hence, the police officers probing the cases in question should be held accountable."