November 23, 2018 Friday
Bedtime Story
Findings of Praja Foundation
This means (as shown by the data gathered
and analyzed by the NGO Praja Foundation) that in Maharashtra there is a conviction rate
of mere 23% in cases of serious crimes that include offences such as murder,
attempt to murder and rape.
This is mainly due to the fact that the
prosecuting agency which is chiefly the state police is unable to prove the
offence because of lack of evidence or witnesses.
It is not necessarily the case that
evidence or witnesses are lacking for the prosecution to develop a strong
water-tight case against the accused.
Witnesses are often bribed, coerced,
threatened or simply knocked off with the state unable to provide security to
them or the witnesses not having enough faith in the state to provide them so.
At times even a whole-hearted effort is
lacking to bring in witnesses to strengthen the cases.
When a witness who was supposed to testify
in favor of prosecution makes a U-turn in legal terms such an act is called
“witness turning hostile”.
The Praja Foundation report of 2017 that
took into consideration verdicts of 1,326 criminal cases pronounced between the
year of 2008 and 2012 going on in the state of Maharashtra came out with some
astonishing figures.
Out of 244 cases of charges of murder, only
60 ended up with convictions.
In cases that involved attempts to murder
under section 307 of IPC out of 196 cases only 32 landed up with
convictions.
In cases where charges are those of rape
out of 300 cases a mere 54 landed up with convictions in this time frame.
What is even more damning is that in these
rape cases majorities of victims (a little more than 70%) were children (below
18 years) and were being tried under the relatively new POCSO Act of 2012.
POCSO stands for Protection of Children
against Sexual Offences which aims to protect children (being gender neutral)
from offenses of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography and making
the judicial process more friendly for the victims.
Yet the conviction rates remains very
depressing which then becomes a weak deterrent for the criminals in changing
their ways.
India with its humongous population and its
resources stretched to its seams is obviously not a very inspiring case when it
comes to the criminal justice system.
Let us see how other nations fair in this
respect.
Canada and China have the highest
conviction rates reaching as high as 99% but both for very contrasting reasons;
China uses tactics that would be unacceptable in other nations using coercion,
torture and pressure on prosecuting agencies.
Canada is a liberal democracy with vast resources,
low population and low crime rate making the functioning the criminal judiciary
system far smoother than most nations.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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