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Conviction rate

1953, 1960, 2000, 2014

Conviction rate, India, 1953, 1960, 2000 and 2014; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 09 2015

See graphic 'Conviction rate, India, 1953, 1960, 2000, 2014'

2006-15

Crime rate and conviction in %, 2006-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, September 5, 2016

See graphic 'Crime rate and conviction in %, 2006-15'

2012, 2014

The Times of India, Aug 09 2015

Deeptiman Tiwary

Kerala tops with over 77% convictions, Bihar worst with just 10%

In an indication that the quality of investiga tion by police and argumen of cases by prosecution may be improving, the latest data on disposal of criminal cases by courts show that convic tion rate is slowly but steadily improving. In fact, 2014 saw a jump o almost five percentage points in conviction rate over 2013 bringing last year's figures close to those in the 90s.

According to data on con viction rate for 2014, collated by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and present ed by the government in Parliament, the percentage o cases in which the accused re ceived punishment stood at over 45%. In 2013, the same figure was 40.2% while in 2012 it stood at 38.5%.

In 2014, Kerala was the best performing state with over 77% convictions while Bihar was the worst with just 10%.

The trend is significant as since independence conviction rate in cognisable crime (offences which fall under Indian Penal Code) have been consistently falling. The oldest record in this respect is that of 1953, the year when NCRB began collating crime data. In that year, the percentage rate of conviction to total cases tried was almost 64%.In the next decade it improved to 65%. However, 70s onwards it has been consis tently declining, dropping to less than 40% in 2012.

Putting the matter in perspective, a senior home ministry official said, “Not only are investigating techniques improving thanks to greater use of technology such as DNA testing and other forensics, one big change that has come about is that it is no more easier to falsely impli cate people and get away with it. Police thus is more careful before chargesheeting someone.

The cases where several accused mentioned in the FIR do not figure in the chargesheet have increased. This is resulting in better conviction.One can only hope this trend will continue.“

The 2014 data show that among the larger states with better conviction rates, Kerala is the best. In 2014, it has recorded a conviction rate of 77.8%. Its nearest competitor, Tamil Nadu is almost 12 percentage points behind with a rate of 65.9%.

Even Uttar Pradesh, with its infamous lawlessness, does better than the national average clocking 53.2%. Bihar is the worst with 10% conviction rate followed by West Bengal where the figure is 11%. Maharashtra, which not too long ago had one of the worst conviction rates hovering at 6-7% has shown marked improvement clocking a rate of 19.3% in 2014. In 2013, the figure for Maharashtra was 13% while in 2012 it was just 9%.

Kerala stands out as an example to follow. With a poor conviction rate of 19.6% in 1992--when the national average stood at 46.4%, the state more than doubled its conviction rate in a decade with the 2002 figures reading 50.2%.

In 2012, it got over 65% cases securing conviction and in 2013 improved the same to over 68%.

2015

Conviction rates in IPC criminal cases in major states, presumably in 2015; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, September 2, 2016

See graphic:

Conviction rates in IPC criminal cases in major states, presumably in 2015

2016, 2017: Delhi

Somreet Bhattacharya, June 20, 2019: The Times of India

Dacoity cases have seen the maximum rise in conviction, followed by robbery and murder
From: Somreet Bhattacharya, June 20, 2019: The Times of India

There has been a substantial rise in the conviction rate in cases investigated by Delhi Police. As compared to the all-India conviction rate, which was about 25% in 2016, Delhi had about 63.7%. In fact, this is the highest rate of conviction achieved by Delhi Police since 2012.

The latest data compiled by Delhi Police shows that in 2017 there was a 12% rise in convictions. While the rate of conviction in dacoity cases has risen to 77%, an increase of more than 17% since 2016, in robbery cases it rose by 12% and murders by 6%. Police attribute this to implementation of scientific evidence collection and use of advanced forensic studies. The figures are expected to rise after law are order duties are separated from investigation under a pilot project started earlier this year. The government has already sanctioned 4,227 posts (1,409 each for sub-inspector/ASI, head constable and constable ranks) for separation of crime investigation and law and order functions.

A proposal has also been made for setting up new forensic labs and having training sessions for investigating officers, who would be sensitised about the laws of extradition, important case studies and cybercrime.

The conviction in rape cases was 31.7% in 2017 as compared to 26.6% in 2016. For rioting, the rate was 36.6% as compared to 50% the previous year.

Delhi Police spokesperson DCP Madhur Verma said that a legal cell has been set up to follow up cases and analyse the orders passed by various courts on a day-to-day basis to achieve a better rate of conviction. “The legal cell prepares a monthly calendar of all important cases pending trial for effective tracking and monitoring of cases,” he added.

A synopsis of observations by the courts is prepared monthly and circulated among all units for improving investigation skills. These booklets flag lapses and shortcomings in investigations that need to be rectified. Apart from this, the legal cell prepares an offence-wise observation by the courts to highlight the trends in achieving convictions. Cases studies of wellknown investigations are also mentioned in these trends.

Crime incidents are divided under five heads — murder (including causing hurt), sexual offences, accidents, local and special laws, cheating, and theft or robbery — to provide tips to the investigating officers. “Analysing the trend has reduced the time taken to collect evidence,” said Rajan Bhagat, DCP, CRO. In the next few months, the investigating officers will be provided legal education by experts to aid them in foolproof conclusion of cases.

Work is on to integrate the records of daily arrests with prisons, courts, prosecution branch and the forensic science laboratory for better monitoring of cases and increased coordination between these departments. Daily diaries are being updated electronically for easy access to case materials.

Senior officers said that measures like setting up of a state-of-the-art control room under National Emergency Support System (NESS) and digitisation of evidences will reduce the response and case filing time to nearly half, which will eventually improve the conviction rates phenomenally.

2019

Bharti Jain, October 3, 2020: The Times of India

The all-India chargesheeting rate for crimes under the IPC that were investigated in 2019 was 67.2%, a slight dip from 68.1% in 2018, while the conviction rate improved marginally to 50.4% from 50% in 2018.

Chargesheeting rate, an indicator of disposal of crime cases by the police, is a calculation of such cases as a percentage of total cases disposed of by the police. Conviction rate, indicator of disposal of crime cases by courts, is defined as such cases as a percentage of those in which trial was completed by courts. Kerala (85.1%) topped on conviction rate for all IPC crimes in 2019, followed by Tamil Nadu (63.2%).

Crimes against women: UP tops conviction rate

In rape cases, the conviction rate rose to 27.8% in 2019 from 27.2% in 2018.

Among the states, the highest chargesheeting rate for crimes against women was in Kerala (93.2%), though conviction rate there was a low 13.4%, way below the national average of 23.7%.

The best conviction rate for crimes against women was in Mizoram (88.3%).

In Uttar Pradesh, which is in the news due to Hathras atrocity, the conviction rate for IPC crimes was 59.2% in 2019, while the conviction rate for crimes against women was 55.2%, best among the bigger states and also higher than the all-India average of 23.7%.

As per the ‘Crime in India’ data for 2019 released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Tuesday, disposal of crimes registered under the special and local laws (SLL) — such as Dowry Prohibition Act, Excise Act, Arms Act and Pocso Act — in 2019 was better than in IPC crimes with 93.3% all-India chargesheeting rate, up from 92.2% in 2018, and 80.3% conviction rate, down from 81.8% in 2018.

Among the states, the conviction rate for all IPC crimes was highest in Kerala (85.1%), followed by Tamil Nadu

(63.2%). The states with a low conviction rate in 2019 were Bihar (6.1%) and West Bengal

(13.4%), though the figure for West Bengal pertains to 2018 as the 2019 data was not submitted to NCRB by the state.

Crime head-wise, the chargesheeting rate for murder crimes was 85.3% last year as against 84.2% in 2018, and the conviction rate in murder cases too improved from 41.4% to 41.9%. As many as 5.42 lakh crime cases of the total 83.8 lakh registered under IPC, that were taken up for trial by the courts in 2019, ended in acquittal, while 2.34 lakh of the total 16.3 lakh SLL cases put on trial ended in acquittals.

As many as 44.75 lakh persons were arrested across the country in 2019 for crimes against women, 5.05 lakh chargesheeted, 46,164 convicted, 13,896 discharged and 1.61 lakh acquitted. The number of those acquitted in states like Maharashtra (20,526) was higher than those convicted (2,046). In UP, 83,582 persons were arrested for crimes against women, 1.03 lakh chargesheeted, 15,579 convicted, 2,096 discharged and 13,248 acquitted.

Among the states, the conviction rate for all IPC crimes was highest in Kerala (85.1%), followed by Tamil Nadu (63.2%)

Convictions for specific crimes

Rape cases, 2014-17; custodial deaths, 2001-17

Dec 9, 2019 Times of India

The conviction rate in India for rape, 2014-17
From: Dec 9, 2019 Times of India

The conviction rate in India for custodial deaths, 2001-17
From: Dec 9, 2019 Times of India

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the conviction rate in cases of rape disposed of by the courts saw only a marginal increase from 27.4% in 2014 to 31.8% in 2017. In 2017, 57.9% of the 57 cases of rape-cum-murder saw convictions. Meanwhile, the pendency rate is still high with 90.1% of the total 574 cases still pending before the courts.

Is slow conviction rate in rape cases swaying the public mood in favour of extra-judicial killings?

AND NO CLOSURE, EITHER, FOR 3 CASES THAT ROCKED THE CAPITAL IN LAST 11 YEARS NIRBHAYA | 2012

A crime so horrific that it shook the entire country, not just Delhi, where it took place. The December 2012 gang rape, and the eventual death, of a young woman in a moving bus at night, changed rape laws. As the laws were made more stringent, fast-track courts were set up to hear rape cases. After the arrest of six men, one of them a juvenile, Delhi Police charged the five adult accused with murder, rape, attempt to murder, kidnapping, unnatural offences and dacoity. Later, Ram Singh, one of the accused, died in jail, apparently by suicide. In 2013, a fast-track court found the men guilty and awarded them capital punishment. This was confirmed by Delhi high court the same year. When the men appealed to the Supreme Court, it stayed their execution in 2014.

Two years later, the court heard their appeals and dismissed them a year later. In 2018, the apex court dismissed the review petitions of three convicts, the fourth, Akshay, having declined to file a review petition. The four have not been executed because any court issuing the black warrant to carry out the hanging has to await a decision on a mercy plea filed by Vinay Kumar Sharma to the President of India. Nirbhaya’s parents recently moved the trial court seeking to fast-track the death penalty. They told the court that none of the four guilty men had a clemency or curative application pending before the Supreme Court.

JIGISHA GHOSH | 2009

Info tech professional Jigisha Ghosh worked in Noida. She was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009, soon after she was dropped by her office cab at 4am near her home in Vasant Vihar in South Delhi. Her body was recovered three days later from a place near Surajkund in Haryana. The accused had taken her gold ornaments, two mobile phones and her debit and credit cards.

Three men were arrested and a trial court awarded death to two of them, Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, in 2016, while sentencing Baljeet Malik to life in prison. However, a year later Ghosh’s family and prosecution suffered a setback when Delhi high court commuted the death penalty to a life sentence for Kapoor and Shukla while confirming Malik’s life term. Even as the case awaits the Supreme Court’s final decision, Delhi government earlier this year opposed parole to Kapoor, terming him a “hardened criminal” who is also facing trial in the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case.

SOUMYA VISHWANATHAN | 2008

Television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan was shot dead on September 30, 2008, when driving home from work late at night. The police charged three men for the crime, who were subsequently convicted in the murder of IT professional Jigisha Ghosh in Delhi in 2009. The trial is currently pending before a sessions judge in the Saket district court.

Earlier this year, Delhi high court ordered the court to expedite the trial and directed it to hear the case at least twice every week. But with the trial under way, the high court allowed Ravi Kapoor’s release on parole though it was stayed by the Supreme Court in July.

Meanwhile, Twitter remained sharply divided over the “encounter” of the accused. Throughout Friday, several hashtags around the encounter dominated online discourse, with #Encounter (222K) and #Hyderabadpolice (141K) being the top trends. Appreciation and criticism of Hyderabad police cut across political lines.

THOSE WHO PRAISED ‘ENCOUNTER’ POLITICIANS

Mayawati: The action that has been taken by the Hyderabad Police is praiseworthy. In UP, this is happening every day not just in one district but in every district. Be it young girls or aged women, nobody is being spared. There is jungle raj in UP.

Akhilesh Yadav: After all, those who run away from the law could not have run away from justice. It’s good someone has got justice from this, but the real happiness will be when such an effective preventive security system and protective social environment is created that such heinous crimes should never happen to any sisters and daughters.

Jaya Bachchan: “Der aaye, durust aaye (better late than never).

‘CELEBRITIES'

Saina Nehwal: Great work #hyderabadpolice. We salute you.

PV Sindhu: Justice has been served! May (her) soul rest in peace.

Vivek Anand Oberoi: Same spot, same time frame, the predators became the prey! Now that’s true poetic justice! Maybe now all such monsters will finally feel fear and think a hundred times before even thinking of raping and murdering girls!

..AND THOSE WHO SPOKE AGAINST POLITICIANS

Yogendra Yadav: No matter how heineous the crime, once we accept “encounter” as a solution, we give up the hope of rule of law. Today, it’s these “criminals”. Tomorrow, it can be you or me.

Milind Deora: Rape victims & their families deserve justice. Govts must do everything in their power to prevent atrocities against women. Courts must administer justice swiftly. India is not & must not become a mobocracy. Our constitution guarantees every Indian the right to a fair trial.

Sitaram Yechury: How we must secure the lives and dignity of each of our citizens, must be what civilised societies are about. Justice can never be retribution. Why is the tough law put in place on the safety of women after the 2012 Delhi crime not being implemented properly?

Amit Malviya: Encounter of four rapists by Telangana police may be an act of self defence but the jubilation surrounding it suggests collapse of our collective faith in the criminal justice system as much as politics of netas who normalise rapes by offering sewing machine and cash to rapists.

‘CELEBRITIES'

Gutta Jwala: Will this stop the future rapists? And an important question. Will every rapist be treated the same way... irrespective of their social standing?

Vishal Dadlani: We live in a time where the absolute failure of the justice system is hailed as “justice”. Just so you know, cops killing people without a trial can land at your door, too, someday.

THOSE WHO TOOK THE MIDDLE GROUND

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Its difficult for me to justify encounter killings — but pent up fury against legal system is hard to ignore. Victims —especially poor, women and children are being badly let down by policing and judicial system — held back by capacity and capability.

Shashi Tharoor: …We need to know more, for instance if the criminals were armed, the police may have been justified in opening fire preemptively. Until details emerge, we should not rush to condemn. But extra-judicial killings are otherwise unacceptable in a society of laws.

Arvind Kejriwal: There is satisfaction and happiness among people over the Hyderabad incident. It is a matter of concern that people’s trust in the law and order of the country is broken. We all have to strengthen our law and order system so that people start believing in it and every victim can get justice soon.

...AND SOME DID SOMERSAULTS

Babul Supriyo: #HumanRights are for human beings, not for ‘cannibals’ like the 4 killed in the encounter. Thank you hydcitypolice #justicedelivered.

CLARIFICATION: This is not a tweet written by me. My team did it (Avinash Pandey) & he has been immediately sacked. I strongly condemn this.

Abhishek Singhvi: (Tweet deleted later) Sometimes in spite of all the debates and #HumanRights logics, we shall understand the mood and sentiments of the people of the nation and stand with them. After all, democracy is all about ‘The People’. #Encounter.

LATER: In world’s largest democracy, there is nothing we cannot achieve through law. Nirbhaya case has had some delay but it has crossed all judicial hierarchies pretty quickly and is likely to be implemented shortly. Both Hyderabad and Unnao cases unlikely to see long delay. So no need to despair.