Ghaziabad stands third with 899 convictions during year-long ‘special drive’
With 899 accused persons convicted between July 2015 and August this year during a ‘special drive’ by the state prosecution department, Ghaziabad district has the third highest number of convictions in Uttar Pradesh during the period.
With 899 accused persons convicted between July 2015 and August this year during a ‘special drive’ by the state prosecution department, Ghaziabad district has the third highest number of convictions in Uttar Pradesh during the period.
Kanpur bags the first spot with 1,391 convictions. Lucknow follows with 1,112 in the last one year.
The Meerut zone that includes Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Meerut, Hapur, Baghpat and Bulandshahr, also topped the state list of bail cancellations with the number close to 23,834 during the period. The Agra zone follows with 18,101 cancellations.
Ghaziabad is also ahead of other districts in the state in cancelling bails of accused persons who feature in the top-10 habitual offenders list at various police stations with 956 such cases during the year.
“Our special focus is to get bail cancellation of habitual offenders and history-sheeters and get more convictions. We have tried that more cases reach the sessions courts for trial. We are also trying to prevent criminals with sound financial backgrounds from getting bails. Such people often go to higher courts and obtain stays,” said Dr Surya Kumar, director general (prosecution), Uttar Pradesh.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) figures, over 5,44,000 criminal cases filed under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were pending, waiting for trial in various Uttar Pradesh courts at the end of 2014.
The NCRB statistics highlight a conviction rate of 53.2% and a case pendency of 87.4% of the IPC cases in the state at the end of 2014.
According to the officials, the special drive has had some remarkable achievements to its credit in the last one year. Because of their speedy efforts, the prosecution officers from Hapur district were able to secure a conviction within 16 days of the charge-sheet being filed in a rape case of a 6-year-old girl at a locality under Bahadurgarh police station.
“The accused was arrested and the charge-sheet filed. During the trial, we produced six witnesses and got the testimony of the victim girl which led to the accused being sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. If prosecution officers work more actively, cases can be fast-tracked with effective, time-bound results,” said AK Verma, senior prosecuting officer, Hapur district.
According to officials, 21,184 cases meriting a punishment of less than 10 years were disposed and 28,362 accused persons were convicted in the same in the state during the special drive.
Another 2,932 cases were disposed where 6,244 accused were convicted and sentenced to punishment for 10 or more years, with 33 convicts getting death penalty.
“A total of 1,45,191 bail cancellations were obtained for various accused persons throughout the state. Another 4,886 bail cancellations were secured against persons who are habitual offenders and are also listed in the top-10 list at various police stations across the state,” Kumar said.