HYDERABAD: With a conviction rate of just eight per cent, Telangana state stands ninth in crimes against women in the country. The poor conviction rate means the accused walks free in about 90 per cent of cases.
According to the NCRB data of 2016, 21,959 cases went to trial in various courts in the state in 2016. Of these, 15,374 cases pertained to 2016 while the remaining where pending from previous years. Another 642 cases were reported to be false and another 438 were ‘mistake of facts’.
Crimes against women include dowry deaths, kidnapping and abduction, insult to modesty of women, violating the dowry prohibition act, rape, human trafficking, unnatural offences and immoral trafficking.
The data indicates that the police were prompt in filing chargesheets in 12,185 cases or a remarkable 87.7 per cent of cases. It failed at the prosecution stage in 471 of the 5,809 cases where the trial was completed resulting in acquittal or discharge of 2,499 persons.
Activist Jameela Nishath said that the social stigma attached to being involved in court cases stops the victim from pursuing the case.
“It is more so in sexual assault cases where they back off. Initially they approach the police but as the court process is long drawn out, they hesitate owing to the social stigma. Hence, the verdict is favourable to the accused,” she says.
