law: Code of Criminal Procedure Act, 1973
  
  40.Duty of officers employed in connection with the affairs of a village to
  
  make certain report.-
  (1) Every officer employed in connection with
  
  the affairs of a village and every person residing in a village shall forthwith
  
  communicate to the nearest Magistrate or to the officer in charge of the
  
  nearest police station, whichever is nearer, any information which he may
  
  possess respecting-
  (a) the permanent or temporary residence of any notorious receiver or vendor of
  
  stolen property in or near such village;
  (b) the resort to any
  
  place within, or the passage through, such village of any person whom he knows,
  
  or reasonably suspects, to be a thug, robber, escaped convict or proclaimed
  
  offender;
  (c) the commission of, or intention to commit, in or near such village any
  
  non-bailable offence or any offence punishable under section 143, section 144, section
  
  145, section 147, or section 148 of the Indian Penal Code(45 of 1860);
  (d) the occurrence in or near such village of any sudden or unnatural death or
  
  of any death under suspicious circumstances or the discovery in or near such
  
  village of any corpse or part of a corpse, in circumstances which lead to a
  
  reasonable suspicion that such a death has occurred or the disappearance from
  
  such village of any person in circumstances which lead to a reasonable
  
  suspicion that a non-bailable offence has been committed in respect of such
  
  person;
  (e) the commission of, or intention to commit, at any place out of India near
  
  such village any act which, if committed in India, would be an offence
  
  punishable under any of the following sections of the Indian Penal Code,(45 of
  
  1860) namely, 231 to 238 (both inclusive), 302, 304, 382, 392 to 399 (both
  
  inclusive), 402, 435, 436, 449, 450, 457 to 460 (both inclusive), 489A, 489B,
  
  489C and 489D;
  (f) any matter likely to affect the maintenance of order or the prevention of
  
  crime or the safety of person or property respecting which the District
  
  Magistrate, by general or special order made with the previous sanction of the
  
  State Government, has directed him to communicate information.
  (2) In this section, -
  (i) "village" includes village-lands;
  (ii) the expression "proclaimed offender" includes any person
  
  proclaimed as an offender by any Court or authority in any territory in India
  
  to which this Code does not extend, in respect of any act which if committed in
  
  the territories to which this Code extends, would be an offence punishable
  
  under any of the following sections of the Indian Penal Code,(45 of 1860)
  
  namely, 302, 304, 382, 392 to 399 (both inclusive), 402, 435, 436, 449, 450 and
  
  457 to 460 (both inclusive);
  (iii) the words "officer employed in connection with the affairs of the
  
  village">means a member of the panchayat of the village and includes the
  
  headman and every officer or other person appointed to perform any function
  
  connected with the administration of the village.