November 16, 2009

Stop playing safe, Addl DGP tells investigating officers

PUNE: CID's additional director general of police S P S Yadav attributed the poor rate of conviction in the state to pressure under which police
investigation officers tend to submit charge-sheets even in cases where a final report should be submitted due to lack of evidence. The practice of just submitting charge-sheet as a safe playing technique should be curbed by the higher echelons of Maharashtra police, he said.

Adopting scientific measures and making use of latest techniques in investigations has helped the state criminal investigation department (CID), Pune, secure 60 per cent conviction rate in 2008 as against 9.4 per cent by the state police units, said Yadav.

Addressing policemen after the release of state's yearly crime report at the state reserve police headquarters at Wanowrie, Yadav said the crime registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has gone up by 5.4 per cent in 2008 as compared to the previous year, but the crime committed under the special and local laws has declined considerably.

The crime which registered rise are: counterfeiting coins and currency notes (+ 50 per cent), riots (+17.5 per cent), murder attempt (+13.7 per cent), dacoity (+13.3 percent), thefts (+10.9 percent) and robbery (+9.4 percent). The crime on the decline include planning dacoity (-32.3 percent), dowry deaths (-10.6 percent) and culpable homicide (-1.8 percent).

Yadav said that property offences have gone up by 9.26 per cent and percentage of detection in such cases was 34 per cent, but the rate of illegall transaction of money under such offence was 9 per cent.

The crime against women surged by 5.4 percent and in the last five years it has increased by 36.5 percent. The crime against women which are on rise include molestation (+9.47 percent), dowry (prevention) act (+8.89 percent) , rape (+7.37 percent), subjecting women to cruelty (+6.43 percent), sexual harassment (+5 percent) and kidnapping (+3.21 percent). The conviction rate in respect of crime involving husband and relatives is down by 3.55 percent; dowry and suicide abatement is down by 9 percent and 8 percent respectively. These figures call for introspection by investigation officers and supervisory officers, he said.

Talking to media persons, Yadav said violent crimes like murder, attempted murder, culpable homicide, dowry deaths, kidnapping, rape, arson, riots, dacoity and robbery has escalated by 11 per cent. Violent crime constitutes 10.95 per cent of the total IPC cases and its percentage per lakh population is 19.42 percent. These crimes poses a serious challenge to crime prevention machinery particularly in rural areas like Beed, Gadchiroli, Hingoli, Aurangabad rural, Parbhani, Latur, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalna and Solapur rural.

Crime against members of SC/ST communities have increased by 71 percent and 24 percent respectively in the last five years. The rate of conviction under the Prevention of Atrocities Act was 4.8 percent and Prevention of Civil Rights was 2.1 percent. Although the death sentence awarded in the Khairlanji case is a pointer to the success of police investigation, the overall result of investigation of crime against the weaker sections is far from satisfactory.

The CID has called for formation of special juvenile police units in every district and commissionerates consisting of child welfare officers as crimes relating to minors have increased in the age group of 16 and 18 years.

As many as 12,957 people died in road accidents and 49,656 people were injured in road accidents in 2008. The CID report says that the unit commanders can ill afford to ignore the significance of various traffic planning measures required to be taken in their respective jurisdiction for controlling accidents.

Earlier, Mumbai police commissioner D Shivanandan released the CID's annual report titled: "Annual crime in Maharashtra-2008". The function was attended by state police academy director Sridevi Goel, city police commissioner Satya Pal Singh, joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane and mayor Rajlakshmi Bhosale
 

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