Four decades of Insurgency responsible for low conviction rate in Assam Police: DGP Singh

Guwahati, Oct 24: With militancy on the wane, Assam Police have stressed on the investigation of crimes and the conviction rate of the cases investigated by police improved considerably in the last few years, the Director General of Assam Police (DGP), GP Singh said. He also revealed that more than 800 police personnel lost their lives while fighting militancy.

Talking to The Assam Tribune the DGP pointed out why the conviction rate of the cases investigated by Assam Police is much lower than the national average. The DGP said that Assam has faced the brunt of militancy and terrorism in almost all geographical parts of the State during the last forty years. Similarly, for the last forty years or so, the State has seen major law and order situations arising over various issues that have had a long-term impact on the functioning of the Assam Police.

The thrust of the State Police during this period was to tackle the militancy and terrorism and the law and order issues. During this period, the State Police has lost more than 800 police personnel of different ranks including IPS and APS officers to keep the State safe.

It is a matter of huge pride for the Assam Police as the sacrifices and hard work of the generations of Assam Police personnel of all ranks during this tumultuous period of Assam's history that we are looking at the end of the dark tunnel. During 2023 and 2024 (till October 15th) Assam has not had any civilian or security personnel killed at the hands of militants or terrorists, the DGP said.

On the steps to improve the conviction rate, Singh said, "As we reach the end of militancy and terrorism, the Assam Police leadership with the guidance and directions of the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has embarked on a journey to improve the fundamentals of policing especially prevention and detection of crime. The conviction rate was constantly plummeting during the period, reaching 8.5% in 2013, 5.9% in 2018 and 5.4% in 2021. It was against this backdrop that we started working on improving the conviction percentage in the State- reaching an average of 22.22% for 2024 (Jan to Sept 2024) with 23.26% in September 2024. Our effort is to continue moving towards the national average of conviction of about 55% and then moving ahead and reaching the top positions in the country in the coming decade. The conviction percentage takes time to decrease or increase since the quality of the investigation and the prosecution has a direct bearing on the conviction percentage. With cases taking specific time in investigation and then time being taken in trial in the courts, the results of improvement in quality of investigation and prosecution require at least three to five years to reflect in improvement in conviction percentage. The current improvement is because of improvement in follow-up (including presentation of facts and materials) in courts and the quality of prosecution. Similarly, we have made rapid strides in improving the quality of investigation. The percentage of chargesheet which was 48.80% in 2019, 34.30% in 2022 has risen substantially to 66.09% in 2024 (till September 2024). We intend to reach 80% as chargesheet rate in the coming couple of years. This improved quality of investigation would reflect in improved convictions in coming years when the cases that are being investigated now would come up for trial in competent courts.”

On pending cases, the DGP said the focus of the police for a long time was on dealing with terrorism and law and order. Now the thrust is on the investigation of criminal cases. This has further been helped by the clear direction of the political and police leadership, coupled with the experience of senior police leadership in federal investigation agencies that has helped in bringing in the best practices of the federal agencies to the functioning of the Assam Police.

Further, filling up vacancies, especially at the level of ASP/ DSP/Inspectors/Sub-Inspectors has added teeth to the exercise of holistic improvement in the investigation of crime in the State. During the period from May 2021 till September 2024, the Investigation Officers in Assam have investigated and disposed of 3,47,102 criminal cases. This exercise of investigation and disposal of criminal cases of such huge magnitude has resulted in the investigation load of the Investigation Officers reducing substantively across the State.

-By Ramanuj Dutta Choudhury