Only in 67 rape cases out of 4,030 cases filed in National Capital in last four years accused were convicted, shows prosecution data.
According to the statistics available with the prosecution, a total of 4030 cases of rapes were reported in the capital and only seven per cent of them have been decided in the last four years, which included Uber rape case in which the cab driver has been convicted for raping a woman executive.
Of 4030 cases, 3732 (93 per cent) have been pending in the trail courts in the capital. Sources said 298 (seven per cent) cases have been decided in the courts in the past four years. Out of these, only in 67 cases (25 per cent), the accused persons got convicted otherwise in 231 (75 per cent) cases the accused got freed, as per the statistics from the judiciary.
Police officials told The Pioneer the reason behind the decreased number of cases in which the accused were convicted is because in most of the cases the complainant turned hostile. A female sub inspector, who did not wish to be named said: “Since 2013, I have become the investigating officer (IO) in seven rape cases. In two cases, the complainant turned hostile and the persons were freed while the other five cases are still under trail.”
A lawyer from the Delhi High Court, Sandeep Kumar Sharma said there were several reasons behind the rising number of rape acquittal cases. Turning hostile may be one of the reasons behind this, but in some cases lack of quality investigations and improper sampling of case evidences have also seen.”
Women activist Kavita Krishanan said the number of trail courts to be increased. “The behavior of the people and society towards the girls (victims) also sometimes forced them to turn hostile. But it is in some cases, not every time. The number of trial courts need to be increased,” said Krishnan.