Maharashtra: The New leader in Crime and Injustice (NCRB)

law lUntil now we have been considering UP-Bihar as the worst states when it came to law and order, but according to statistics publish by the National Crime Records Bureau few weeks back Maharashtra seems to have taken over the leading position. Although a crime happens no matter how good the law and order machinery of a country is, but its the basic duty of the government to ensure that the Victim gets Justice. In this department our Country certainly lags behind, rich and powerful people can get away with any crime in India, thanks to corruption and abuse of power by one and all. 

Conviction Rate: Conviction rate is usually define as no. of criminals convicted by court in response to cases register but according to me most importantly it also means how many victims got Justice. This rate is the ultimate scale by which we can measure the status of Law and Order in a particular city, state or country. Now as per NCRB figures the conviction rate for 2011 is  Maha: 8.2 % (lowest in India)  UP: 59.6%  Bihar: 15.5%. Maha undoubtedly the worst state in India to secure Justice. Its only when your case is pursued by the media there will be hope of  justice otherwise just forget it. Not just over all but even if you consider conviction in specific cases like rape, murder, robbery etc. everywhere Maha is behind UP-Bihar. 

Now when it comes to taking the responsibly of low conviction rate as usual Cops will blame the Prosecutors, Prosecutors will blame the Cops and the Home department who controls both Police and Prosecution will blame the Judiciary for pending cases. The big question remains as it is; exactly who is responsible and what are the reason for this mess?

Firstly its a fact that Maha stands no. 1 in pending cases, as many as 14,66,075 are pending in courts which is 18% of India's share. Again its the Governments responsibly to increase the no. courts and judges and for some reason no commitment is shown by the them. Same story is with the cases disposed by Police, here too Maha is no. 1, around 1,12,962 are under investigation with the Police them-self.  Also if you look closely the no of cases where trials were completed the figures tell a different story. In 2011 a whopping 91,348 cases courts acquitted the criminals in Maha compare to UP - 49,057 and Bihar - 47,949; whereas the no. of convicted is as follows Maha: 8,168 - UP: 72,480, and Bihar: 8,792 now the picture gets clear how can so many criminals get acquitted and so less convicted in Maha? The answer is simple - 'Corruption', not just in police but also in prosecution, the home department and to some extent in lower courts too. 

Last year the home department of Maharashtra had constituted a six-member committee to look into the reasons for reduction in the conviction rates and make appropriate recommendations to improve them. I had read that the committee has submitted its report when Mr. Sarngi was Home Secretary but later I haven't heard of any action on that report. Two weeks back I also sought an appointment of Mr. RR to raise this issue but no response from their side. 

Property Recovery Rate: The NCRB has also publish interesting figures of property recovery rate of all states and cities, its basically the amount of property recover which was stolen. This figure is crucial if you want to judge the performance of Police. According to the info Delhi(City) has only recovered 3.6% whereas Mumbai has recovered 10.4%. Although Mumbai has the biggest amount of property stolen still 10% is below average performance. Especially when we see time and again senior cops do press conference and display the property which was recovered. Its disappointing to know that its just 10% of the total. No one really cares about the remaining 90%.

Role Of Media: I have hardly seen Conviction rate problem reported by electronic media and in print too its very under reported. Most of the times Media reports on specific cases like the Adnan Patrawala case etc. I feel the media should look at the problem in its entirety and not just focus on few cases. I hope this time media takes up the issue and the Maharashtra government acts on it. 

Finally according to me Mr. RR Patil is fairly and squarely responsible for this terrible situation, and if he does not take some important decisions to curb the corruption in Police and Prosecution Maharashtra is just one step away from being a law less state.