Officer in charge of a police station, 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 duties, the police officer present at the station-house who is next in rank to such officer and is above the rank of constable or, when, the State Government so directs, any other police officer so present. [Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), s. 2(o)]
The sub-Inspector and other senior officers were away on other duty. A clerk attached to the station an 'officer in charge of the police station', Pyli Yaccob v. State, AIR 1953 Trav 466.