Jaipur: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Rajasthan lately have been vocal on one issue: rising crime in the state. Whenever a case of loot, murder or rape is reported, local leaders rally against chief minister Ashok Gehlot with the charge that Rajasthan has topped in the country in terms of crime.
If we look at the crime statistics of Rajasthan Police, this charge seems valid. This year, 3,777 cases of rapes were registered in the state between January and July. The number of rapes during the same period last year was 2,972, which means there is a rise of 25.07% crimes against women.
Similarly, there is a 28% rise in atrocities against Dalit women, 20.35% in burglary and 28% in cases of theft. Overall, there has been a 14% increase in crime between this year and last year.
On the issue, BJP state president Satish Poonia says, “Congress leaders in Rajasthan are busy consolidating their power. Because of this, criminals are fearless, and people fearful. Cases of loot, theft, murder and rape are being reported from almost all districts of the state, but the chief minister is ignoring these cases, due to which life has become difficult for the people of the state.”
“According to the data of the police department, there is a 14% increase in crime in the state,” he adds.
“But in reality, this number could be much higher. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot also holds the home portfolio because of which the police department is not being monitored properly. This has become a cause of concern for people.”
Gehlot rubbishes the charges of Satish Poonia.
“The BJP is spreading lies about crime data in Rajasthan,” he says. “Our government implemented the policy of registering all crimes. An FIR (first information report) is mandatorily registered at police stations for every complaint received. This led to an increase in crime registration, but there is a difference between a rise in crime and a rise in crime registration. Some people are wrongly interpreting these to be one.”
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Photo: PTI
The chief minister also says it is wrong to compare the data of 2020 with that of 2021.
“Almost half of 2020 was under partial or complete lockdown, leading to a decline in crime. For example, the cases of crimes against women fell by 16% as compared to 2019, and there was a decline of 11% in cases of rape. If one were to compare crime data of 2021 with that of 2019, one would see that there has been a decrease of 10%.”
The statistics released by the Rajasthan Police corroborate Gehlot’s claims. Before the policy of compulsory registration of FIR, 34% cases were registered after the intervention of courts; this number has now fallen to 15%.
According to the law, if the police refuse to register an FIR on a complaint, the complainant can move a lower court for the registration of crime.
“If the court is satisfied with the facts, it orders police under Section 156 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 to lodge an FIR,” says Rajasthan high court lawyer Kapil Gupta.
Also read: NHRC Issues Notice to Rajasthan Government, Police Over ‘Unabated’ Crimes Against Women
Rajasthan’s director general of police (DGP), M.L. Lather, says strict action is being taken against police officers who refuse to register FIR.
“There have been 218 cases so far in which complainants went to the office of superintendent of police for FIR; 18 of them had earlier gone to respective police stations but their complaints were not registered. Departmental action has been initiated against officers of these 18 police stations. Vigilance teams conduct decoy operations to check if police stations are reluctant to register crime,” the police chief adds.
Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan assembly, Gulab Chand Kataria, refuses to buy this logic. “The DGP is saying that all complaints are being registered and adding that 15% of the FIRs are being registered on court orders. Isn’t this contradictory?” he questions.
Kataria says 15% is not a small number. “These are the cases where complainants went to courts. Obviously, there would be many who were turned away from police stations, but couldn’t go to courts. The fact is criminals in Rajasthan have a free run and the police have lost their control.”
DGP Lather agrees that even after the process of registration of crime having been simplified and made hassle-free, the state is far from achieving the 100% target of compulsory registration of crimes.
Also read: Average 87 Rape Cases Daily, Over 7% Rise in Crimes Against Women in 2019: NCRB Data
“The ideal situation,” he says, “would be that all complaints are registered at police stations and no one has to approach courts for FIRs. We are inching towards achieving this, but false cases remain a challenge.”
According to Rajasthan Police, 37% of cases of crimes against women have been found to be “untrue” during investigations. Incidentally, Rajasthan has the highest number of false cases in the country.
In view of this, Rajasthan Police has made changes in the way it investigates cases. The state government has created a special investigative unit for crimes against women in each district under the supervision of SPs. Earlier, investigations into these cases were monitored by deputy SPs. Apart from crimes against women, the special unit also monitors investigations into the cases of atrocities against the SC and ST, crimes against children and human trafficking.
“After arresting the accused, our prime focus is on completing the investigation in a timely manner and filing the charge sheets in courts. Following this, we put our energy on bringing witnesses to court for conviction,” says DGP Lather.
He says that the performance of Rajasthan Police in terms of speed of investigations and conviction rate is rapidly improving. For one, a case of rape took an average of 280 days to investigate until 2017-18; now the probe is wound up in 140 days. Similarly, the rate of conviction in crime against women in the state is 45% against the national average of 23%, he adds.
Avadhesh Akodia is an independent journalist. He tweets @AvadheshJpr.