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,...
Nagpur Police which is drawing flak from all corners for spurt in street crimes also suffered another ignominy as the conviction rate of murder cases in recent years has dropped alarmingly. The fall in conviction rate exposes the tall claim of senior police officials about keeping crime and criminals under control. Shoddy investigation, faulty chargesheets and backtracking of witnesses were the prime reason for drop in conviction rate. Nagpur police have been able to punish on an average only 27 out of 100 murder accused.
In 2016, the then Chief Minister and now Dy CM of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, had directed the Nagpur police officials to improve the conviction to put a check on emboldened criminals. However, the investigation machinery of the Commissionerate miserably failed to achieve the goal in the past one-and-a-half-years.
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| CP Amitesh Kumar |
As per the statistics, the court upheld prosecution's story in only eight cases from 71 that were decided in 2017 resulting in just 11.25 per cent conviction rate. In 2018, the police secured a conviction rate of 40.38 per cent as the court convicted the accused in 21 cases out of 52 cases. The conviction rate decreased to 37.03 % in 2019 with conviction in only 10 murder cases out of 27 cases decided by the court. It again increased to 38.46 per cent in 2020 as just 13 cases decided by the court due to lockdown and the police managed to get conviction in five cases.
In 2021 and 2022 (till June), the conviction rate showed an alarming drop with 21.73 per cent and 27.27 per cent respectively. In 2021, a total of 23 murder cases were decided by the court and convicted accused persons in just five cases. In 2022 (till June), the story is the same as just six accused persons convicted out of 22 cases decided by the court.
Experts stated that the decreasing conviction rate was showing the poor supervision of senior officials in drafting chargesheets. Also the rate of witnesses turning hostile reflects poorly on policing and worst the quality of panch reflects lack of interest.
Murder is the most brutal crime in the world and accused in such cases should be punished for their deeds. If the conviction shows a slump in the past few years, it should be effectively scrutinised by officials and necessary measures to maintain investigation standards, said a retired police official.
The police are protectors of life and property of citizens and if the on an average 63 persons are not getting punishment for committing murders then it would be difficult for police machinery to decrease murders, he said.
A police official who do not wish to be named said that conviction in murder case was important for even day-to-day policing. When an accused is acquitted in a murder case on return to his locality he remains a threat to common citizens. The residents always remain terrified as they know him as a murder accused. Similarly, the rival gang also gets activated to eliminate him,” the official said.
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