E-Paper
Punjab: Every 2nd crime case police registered in 2018 remained pending for probe by year-end
The national average pendency in IPC cases is 28.2%
Chandigarh Every second crime case registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Punjab in 2018 is pending investigation, data that National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released recently for the year shows.
At a pendency rate of 50.8%, the state stands number 1 on the dubious list among all big states, followed by Assam (49.2%), Uttrakhand (45.9 %), Jharkahand (46.5%) and Maharashtra (39.8%). Pendency rate is calculated as cases pending investigation at the end of the year as a percentage of total cases registered for investigation in the same year. By 2018-end, Punjab had 36,295 pending cases.
Experts claim rampant corruption at the grass-roots level in the police and political interference in police functioning is the main reason behind such a poor show of disposal of cases registered under the IPC.
Among all states, only Manipur (80%) and Meghalya (79.4%), the much-smaller states rank above Punjab on this unwanted list.
National average is 28%
The national average pendency in IPC cases is 28.2%. Haryana (16.7%), Rajasthan (7.3%), Himachal (22.7%), Jammu and Kashmir (35.4%) has much lower pendency rate of cases as compared to Punjab. In some solace, however, Punjab’s rate of filing charge-sheets in IPC cases was 65%. This was much better than neighbouring Haryana’s 45.5%. Kerala tops the country with its rate of filing charge-sheet at 95%.
Among Special and Local Laws (SLL), that includes various acts related to forest, excise, pollution, food and drugs, passport etc, with 44% pendency rates, among big states, Punjab ranks before states like Assam (60.9%), Jharkhand (51.1%) and Jammu and Kashmir (50.9%). In neighbouring states, Himachal Pradesh has 17% pendency; Rajasthan (2.4%) and Haryana (37.5%).
Crime against women up 15% over 2017
The state has also disappointed in number of crimes against women, where the number has increased to 5,302 in 2018 from 4,620 in 2017, an increase of 15%. In 2016, these figures were 5,105. Among 2018 figures of rape cases, in 530 cases victims were adult women; others were below the age of 18 years. The state also witnessed an increase in rape cases to 837 in 2018 from 530 in 2017.
This figure was 838 in 2016. In rape cases in which the victim was below 18 years of age, in 151 cases, the victims were between the age of 12-16 years. In 139 cases, the age of the victim was 16-18 years. In 30 cases, the age of the victim was found to be between 6-12 years whereas in 10 cases, the victims were below the age of 6 years. Among women, 381 women, between 18-30 years, fell prey to this heinous crime. In 108 cases, the victims were between 30-45.
