Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
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| DGP Prvin Dixit |
- 19 lakh criminal cases pending in Maharashtra
- Close to 5 lakh cases are pending for more than 5 years
By Dheeraj Fartode
A staggering number of nearly nineteen lakh criminal cases is pending in various Maharashtra courts, and close to 5 lakh cases have been pending for more than five years. Responding to this grave statistical detail, Maharashtra’s Director General of Police (DGP) Pravin Dixit has asked the force to list out old cases pending in the court for more than five years and ensure that they are not delayed further for want of appearance of Police officers or Investigation Officers (IOs).
Very often, the IO gets transferred and with passage of time loses interest in pursuing criminal case filed during his tenure. As a result, the cases get prolonged or often result in acquittal due to indifference shown by officers, the top cop is understood to have found. The DGP’s directions were issued as per deliberations in DG/IG conference at Bhuj in Gujarat in the month of December 2015.
Sources informed ‘The Hitavada’ that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh discussed the topic of alarmingly high pendency of criminal cases in the courts. After discussing various reasons including inadequate numbers of courts and judges in the country, another point of non-appearance of IOs during court proceeding also came to fore. The Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister directed all DGPs to issue guidelines to their respective forces and ensure that IOs should be present in the court when the courts seek their assistance and presence.
As per the figures obtained from National Judicial Data Grid, total 1,95,139 cases are pending in Maharashtra beyond 10 years and 2,98,977 cases are pending for more than five years. As many as 5.41 lakh cases are pending between two and five years while 8.63 lakh cases are pending for less than two years. The pendency is not declining since as per grid data, as against monthly filing of 1,62,858 cases in December 2015, the courts could dispose of 1,26,296 cases including 1851 cases that were pending for more than 10 years. DGP Dixit told ‘The Hitavada’ that a pro-active approach by police officers would improve conviction rate definitely and also result in improving criminal justice system. “IO should be active and interact with ‘Panch’ and witnesses during the court proceedings,” said the DGP.
Dixit expects the new directives to make a critical difference to the overall effectiveness of policing in Maharashtra. The idea is to go to the basics of policing, and the beat-rounds is the foundation of securing the society against crime. Effort to reduce the number of pendencies of criminal cases in various courts is an effort to reduce not just the work load on the police force but also to reduce the moral and psychological burden on the cops. Thus freed from anxieties stemming from inefficiency, the cops would be able to work with a greater focus and attain higher rate of prosecution, the DGP feels.
Avoid bikes, adopt foot patrolling in
your beats, DGP to police officials
Community policing and pro-people policing is the main thrust of Pravin Dixit since he took charge as DGP Maharashtra. As part of the initiative, the DGP has directed the force to make presence of uniformed personnel in public by undertaking three to five kilometer walk everyday in the beat area. “Every police officer should avoid bike patrolling in his beat and adopt foot patrolling everyday so that he gets connected with people,” said the DGP. This would increase people-police connect and change the image of force as pro-people police, he further added.
DGP’s directives...
- Participate in activities concerning society like persuading and motivating children to go to school, participating in pulse polio programme.
- Maintain databank of all Government employees residing within jurisdiction and organise meetings with a feel of working together and helping attitude.
- Prepare panels of retired police officers who could articulate viewpoints in favour of law enforcement agencies and to be sent to TV news channel debates.
- Co-ordinate with civil agencies for installing maximum CCTVs in their jurisdiction. Organise joint exercises and sports events between police of district of bordering two states.
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