Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday directed the Chief Secretaries and police chiefs from North Eastern States to give special attention to the low prosecution and conviction rates. Addressing a meeting of chief secretaries and DGPs of the region, he cautioned that this disturbing trend would erode people's faith in criminal justice system.
Singh said in several north eastern states, kidnapping, abduction and extortion were rampant but in such cases, prosecution and conviction rate was less than 1 per cent, "which is unacceptable".
"Unfortunately, in some states in the Northeast, prosecution in criminal cases and conviction rate is very poor. In one state, the prosecution rate is just 5 per cent against the all India rate of 86 per cent," he said. The home minister said poor investigation is the main reason for high acquittal rates in the Northeast.
Singh said if a criminal gets acquitted even after committing a crime, then the faith of common people in justice system gets eroded. "If the acquittal ratio is very high, then not only the moral legitimacy of the state gets undermined, but it incentivises the crimes. There is a need for special attention by the police chief in this area," he said.
Singh said the scientific tools were not used adequately for investigation in the Northeast and the condition of forensic science laboratories was also not satisfactory in several States.