The ‘conviction-based policing’ initiated by the Andhra Pradesh Police has been yielding promising results in the last six months as the number of convictions has increased manifold.
The number of convictions in the cases pertaining to crime against women and children had increased from 25 in 2021 to 134 in 2022, Director General of Police K. V. Rajendranath Reddy said in a release on Saturday.
Of the 134 convictions, 90 pertained to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) and 44 were rape and women murder cases, he said.
As part of the initiative taken up in July 2022, all the unit heads — Superintendents of Police and Commissioners of Police — were asked to pick five most important and sensitive cases in their units and closely monitor the trial progress on a daily basis, the DGP said.
Due to the involvement of the officers at every level, from unit heads to constables, cases were dealt in a transparent manner and witness protection was given high priority, leaving no scope for delay in trail, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said.
As per the release, out of the 90 convictions and judgments under the POCSO Act, one was a death sentence, 42 were life imprisonments, and 11 were jail term awarded for 16 to 20 years and nine for a term of 10 to 15 years.
In 2021, the accused in only 21 POCSO cases had been convicted and in 2020, the number was only 30, while it was 61 in 2019, 53 in 2018, 34 in 2017, 28 in 2016, 20 in 2015 and seven in 2014.
Similarly, in the cases pertaining to rape and murder of women, the accused in 44 cases were convicted. In 2021, the accused in only five such cases were convicted and in 2020 it was only 11. In 2019, the accused in 20 cases had been convicted.
Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said that reformation of the Court Monitoring Cell helped police achieve more convictions. He said the CMC was confined to issuing notices to the parties till recently. As part of the Disha initiatives, the police were filing charge-sheets as early as possible after registration of FIR, he said.