Slow investigations, low convictions in city

The city police managed to file charge sheets and initiate trial proceedings in only 45% of cases of serious offence registered between February 2011 and March 2012, says a white paper on the state of policing, released by NGO Praja Foundation on Tuesday. HT reports.

The city police managed to file charge sheets and initiate trial proceedings in only 45% of cases of serious offence registered between February 2011 and March 2012, says a white paper on the state of policing, released by NGO Praja Foundation on Tuesday.

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Serious offences include murder, rape, kidnapping and causing grievous injury.

It gets worse. Of the 12,296 cases in which trials were completed in 2011, the acquittal rate was 83%, said Nitai Mehta, founder trustee of Praja. “One solution could be to segregate the law and order wing of the police from the investigative wing. A robust investigative wing at each police station will result in higher conviction rates,” Mehta said.

There is also a substantial rise in the number of accidents in 2011-12, the report said.

The white paper published the findings of a survey, according to which 25% of Mumbaiites feel unsafe in the city.

Sadanand Date, joint commissioner of police (law and order), said: “I don’t have the statistics at hand to comment on the issues.”