Assam: Criminal justice response system improves in state

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Due to modernization efforts of the state government, the case load of investigation officers in Assam Police has been drastically reduced, along with a reduction in the crime rate per lakh of the population.

In 2021, the case load per investigation officer (IO) was 52. Now, in June 2024, it has been reduced to 7 cases per IO. As a result of the decreased burden on the IOs, the quality of investigations has improved, and the conviction rate in courts has increased. In 2018, the conviction rate was 5.9 percent in Assam, which has increased to 21.29 percent in June 2024. However, the average conviction rate in the country is more than 50 percent, and Assam still has some catching up to do.

According to DGP GP Singh, "Assam has seen a notable decline in its crime rate and improvement in case disposal over the past six years. There has been significant improvement in major parameters across the spectrum. We remain committed to improve the criminal justice response mechanism in Assam."

Earlier, in the police stations in the state, there were pending cases as there was no separate investigation wing, no modern equipment, and no efficient IOs. As a result, the pace of investigation was slow. Overburdening of the IOs also led to less efficient investigations, which in turn affected the conviction rate in courts as the submissions on investigations could not be upheld. For example, in 2021, there were 95,994 pending cases, which have been reduced to 18,286 pending cases in June 2024.

On the other hand, due to a reduction in the crime rate per lakh of population, the number of cases registered in police stations has also gone down. In 2021, the crime rate per lakh of population was 380, which has come down to 183 in 2023 and up to 139 by June 2024. Similarly, the number of cases registered in police stations in 2021 was 1.33 lakh, which came down to 65,395 cases in 2023 and further down to 25,079 cases in the first six months of 2024.

 Also Read: Women And Child-Related Features Of New Criminal Laws (sentinelassam.com)

Also Watch: