Chandigarh, Feb. 4 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought the Jalandhar police commissioner's response on why there was no effective police action to arrest the accused in a minor's rape case reported in July last year.

Acting on the petition filed by the 13-year-old victim's grandmother, justice Namit Kumar observed that the police appear reluctant in their approach and the investigation reflects sheer incompetence as no efforts were made to arrest the accused.

"In fact, it was only after the investigating officer (IO) filed the status report that the police moved to the passport authorities and collected the bank details of the accused in January this year, five months after registration of the case," said the court.

Despite...