Crime & Punishment

Crime & Punishment

About 3 decades ago I wrote an article under the title “Illusion & Reality” and the first paragraph of the article is reproduced below:

“The crime prevention, detection, prosecution and conviction process in India is abysmally slow. This coupled with half hearted approaches of the law enforcement authorities and innumerable loopholes in the legal system ensures that only a negligible percentage of the accused are convicted. It is paradoxical that in a country having the largest number of laws, degree of lawlessness is also the highest. According to agency reports only six percent of the accused are convicted in India. This percentage will further make a nosedive considering the fact that many crimes are not reported and many others, which are reported, are not recorded by the law enforcement agencies. There is a popular joke that while the American and Scotland Yard police catch the culprit within hours of committing the crime, Indian police is well aware of the impending crime hours before it is being committed. No wonder the crime rate whether it is robbery, dacoity, murder, bride burning, gang rape, scams, and scandals are all increasing at an alarming rate.”

During that period many people expressed surprise to the fact that only 1 out of 16 accused are convicted.   We have made phenomenal progress during the last 3 decades and rate of growth is spectacular. According to latest figures released by the Delhi Police, during this year up to September (9 months) only one person has been convicted out of 7124 FIRs registered for crime against women. There may be several cases where cases have not been reported and many more cases where FIRS have not been filed. National capital is expected to be a role model and trend setter for others to emulate. If this is the state of affairs of the National capital, what will be the situation in other parts of the country, especially those afflicted by poverty and illiteracy is beyond imagination. This shows the virtual lawlessness and anarchy prevailing in the country.  When there is no punishment for crime, crime rate is bound to increase. Fear of punishment which is a deterrent for a potential criminal has almost evaporated. Adding insult to injury, all mighty and powerful and human rights organizations fight for criminals and nobody seems to be worried about the helpless and hapless victims.   

Majority of crimes against women takes place within the confines of the homes and only 3.5 % of such offences are committed by strangers. Despite the fact that the identity of the criminals is known, such pathetic conviction rate shows the “efficiency” of the law enforcement authorities.  For all these evils, we conveniently blame the system, as if the system was designed, developed and supplied by the God. Unless something is drastically done to ameliorate the situation, we will become a land of criminals. The day may not be far off when we substitute the word criminal with citizen like “we the criminals of India….”

If the crime situation continue to make alarming progress like this, even GOD may not be able to save this country.