Criminal Procedure Code Act
Cap 122 | Last Updated: 31 December 2023
1.Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
"chief magistrate" means any person whose appointment to be, or to act as, a chief magistrate has been published in the Gazette;
"cognisable offence" means any offence—
(a)which on conviction may be punished by a term of imprisonment for one year or more; or
(b)which on conviction may be punished by a fine exceeding twenty-four currency points;
"complaint" means an allegation that some person known or unknown has committed or is guilty of an offence;
"currency point" has the value assigned to it in the Schedule to this Act;
"officer in charge of a police station" includes any officer superior in rank to an officer in charge of a police station and also includes, when the officer in charge of the police station is absent from the station house, or unable from illness or other cause to perform his or her duties, the police officer present at the station house who is next in rank to that officer, and is above the rank of constable, or, when the Minister so directs, any other police officer so present;
"police officer" includes any member of a police force established under the Constitution or the Police Act;
"police station" means a post or place appointed by the Inspector General of Police to be a police station, and includes any local area policed from the station.
2.Arrest
(1)In making an arrest, the police officer or other person making the arrest, shall actually touch or confine the body of the person to be arrested, unless there is a submission to the custody by word or action.
(2)If a person forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him or her, or attempts to evade the arrest, the police officer or other person making the arrest may use all means necessary to effect the arrest.
(3)Nothing in this section shall be deemed to justify the use of greater force than was reasonable in the particular circumstances in which it was employed or was necessary for the apprehension of the offender.
3.Search of place entered by person sought to be arrested
(1)If any person acting under a warrant of arrest, or any police officer having authority to arrest, has reason to believe that the person to be arrested has entered into or is within any place, the person residing in or being in charge of that place shall, on demand of the person acting under the warrant or the police officer, allow him or her free ingress to the place and afford all reasonable facilities for a search in it.
(2)If ingress to the place cannot be obtained under subsection (1), it shall be lawful in any case for a person acting under a warrant, and in any case in which a warrant may issue, but cannot be obtained without affording the person to be arrested an opportunity to escape, for a police officer, to enter the place and search in it, and in order to effect an entrance into the place, to break open any outer or inner door or window of any house or place, whether that of the person to be arrested or of any other person, if after notification of his or her authority and purpose, and demand of admittance duly made, he or she cannot otherwise obtain admittance.
This is the complete text of Criminal Procedure Code Act (Cap 122). For legal advice, please consult a qualified lawyer.