Tripura forms panel to raise conviction rate in crimes

AGARTALA - The Tripura government has formed a prosecution directorate to increase the rate of conviction for various violent crimes, officials said here Monday.

Tripura is the first among the eight northeastern states to form a prosecution directorate to deal with criminal cases expeditiously and to up the conviction rate.

“All the public prosecutors working in different courts in the state would work in close association with the prosecution directorate,” a senior law department official told IANS.

While senior legal expert B.R. Das Ray has been appointed the first deputy director of prosecution, the process is on for a full-fledged director and the second deputy director. The prosecution directorate will consist of a three-member team.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s latest (2008) report, the national conviction rate in violent crimes is 38.4 percent while in Tripura it is 27.8 percent. Violent crimes include murder, rape, kidnapping, dacoity, arson and dowry death.

According to the Tripura government notification issued Saturday, public prosecutors and police officers investigating a certain case have to consult the prosecution directorate on each case after completion of the investigation and before submitting the chargesheet to the courts.

“The prosecution directorate would study the chargesheet and investigating procedures to point out weaknesses and to strengthen evidences collected by the investigating officers to book the offenders behind bar,” the notification said.

“The prosecution directorate would also take appropriate action against the defaulting investigating officers, who should work during enquiry in each case keeping in mind that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’,” said the notification, also addressed to the state police chief, all superintendents of police, district magistrates, public prosecutors and advocate general.

The prosecution directorate also asked public prosecutors to submit a monthly statement of disposed cases, showing its nature and result, number of category wise witness examined, and number of hostile witnesses, if any.

Senior lawyers point out several loopholes in investigation and related works resulting in low rate of conviction.

“Procedural fault, wrong registration of cases, lack of morality, unskilled public prosecutors, filing of chargesheets without proper scanning are some of the major causes for poor conviction rate in various crimes,” senior Guwahati High court lawyer Subhashish Talapatra told IANS.

He said senior police officers should closely supervise the works of investigation conducted by their juniors and scrutinise the chargesheets before filling them to the courts.