Calcutta, Nov. 22: Calcutta High Court today asked the police chiefs of Murshidabad, Hooghly and North 24-Parganas to take steps to ensure that chargesheets against accused are filed within 90 days of their arrest.

The court observed many accused persons got bail from trial courts because of the police’s failure to furnish chargesheets within the stipulated 90 days. The observation was made after three accused — one each from the three districts — got bail following the police’s failure to produce chargesheets.

The bench today approved a nine-point guideline framed by Tanmay Roychoudhuri, the Hooghly superintendent of police, to plug the problem. Roychoudhuri, Murshidabad SP B.L. Meena and their North 24-Parganas counterpart Rahul Srivastava were asked to circulate copies of the guidelines to all police stations in the districts.

One of the guidelines states that the police should try their best to gather evidence against the accused as quickly as possible.

A prima facie chargesheet should be filed in case of delays in getting probe reports.

Another guideline says the officer in charge of the police station in whose area the crime has occurred should take the initiative to file the chargesheet within 90 days if the investigating officer is transferred.