Senior superintendent of police, Muzaffarpur, Jitendra Rana has come down heavily on officers for lack of investigation into 11,000 pending cases accumulated over months.

Apart from directing senior officers and station house officers to pull up their socks, Rana also claimed that he would bring down the staggering figure within three months.

Sources said Muzaffarpur’s figure of 11,000 pending cases is the highest among the 38 districts. The cases include special reported (major incidents like murder and kidnapping) and non-special reported (burglary and others) ones that have piled up over one-and-a-half years.

Rana, a 2005-batch IPS officer who took charge of Muzaffarpur in June-end, told The Telegraph: “Close to 11,000 pending cases are a big challenge that I have taken up extremely seriously. I would minimise the astounding figure within three months.”

Apart from putting curbs on the menace of loot and other crimes, he has started to act tough with police officers who fail to deliver. They have been asked to furnish case diaries and file chargesheets or else face suspension.

Chargesheets have to be filed within 90 days of an FIR being filed, failing which the accused can seek bail. Recently, Rana put three police officers under suspension for their delay in filing chargesheets against the accused in cases they were investigating.

Town MLA Suresh Sharma said: “The cases have not stacked up in a day but over months. There had been a spurt in crime, including vehicle theft, loot and murder, during the tenure of former SSP Saurav Kumar.”

Rana said investigating officers are known to make deals with the accused so that they can get bail in the absence of case diaries and chargesheets.

On Tuesday, he held a special classroom session with deputy superintendents of police and station house officers to direct them to mend their ways or face punitive action.

He added: “They should take the pending cases as a priority. They should complete the formalities for the pending cases, including collection of evidence and completion of police diaries. The deputy superintendents of police and other officers have been asked to dispose of cases by filing chargesheets. Twenty-nine police station house officers and officers at 11 outposts have been directed to check the spiralling crime graph.”

Along with additional superintendent of police Rajiv Ranjan and additional superintendent of police (operation) Rana Brajesh, the SSP told the officers ways to prepare supervision reports and diaries within the stipulated timeframe. The field officers manning the police stations have been directed to catch accused within a day, spend six hours of a day in checking papers of vehicles and verify credentials of motorists.

Short- and long-term strategies to tame criminals and tackle rise in crime have also been prepared.