The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report shows that out of 41,992 cases in which trial could be completed, only 6,874 cases ended in conviction. Only the states of Bihar, Assam and West Bengal are below Odisha in conviction rate.
The rate of conviction in criminal cases in the State continues to be one of the lowest in India. With just 16 per cent (pc) cases ending in conviction, Odisha ranks 27th among the states. Needless to say, it reflects on the efficiency of investigation abilities of Odisha Police which reported over 74,000 cases last year.
The State, though, can take heart from the fact that the conviction rate has showed a marginal rise from 10.3 pc in 2013.
Since conviction has a strong correlation with how effectively cases are investigated and strength of material evidence produced by police, the low rate points at the ineffectiveness of State Police in dealing with offences post registration.
The State Police registered as many as 74,569 cases in 2014. Taking the pending 28,520 cases from the previous years, the total number of cases posted for investigation stood at 1.03 lakh. The police managed to submit chargesheets in only 57,721 cases while giving undertaking in another 7,912 cases that final reports submitted were true. It managed to dispose of about 70,073 cases notching up 88 pc disposals.
Lawyer and human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo said a major reason behind the low conviction rate could be the gap between registration of cases followed by arrests and subsequent investigation process.
“In many cases, the complainants are happy after cases are registered and the accused arrested. During the next phase of investigation, neither the victim nor the police show alertness or competence to take the matter to its logical conclusion,” Kanungo said.
Besides, the poor evidence collection process after registration of cases, inordinate delay in filing chargesheets hampers the trial process.
The NCRB report shows that as many as 3,95,022 cases were pending trial when the year started and another 57,721 cases were sent in for trial during the year. Out of the 4,52,743 cases which were up for trial, courts completed the task in case of 41,992. The rest – a whopping 4,10,751 cases – have now been added to the pendency list.
“Conviction or acquittal do not have a direct relationship with curbing criminal offences. But, what is necessary is a fair and credible investigation followed up by an effective prosecution and fair trial,” Kanungo points out.
In Odisha, as per NCRB 2014 report, trial was completed in as many as 139 cases in less than six months, while 4,411 cases took six months to one year.
Similarly, 11,083 cases saw completion of trials between one and three years whereas another 12,413 cases had to wait for three to five years. Duration of trial for over 10,730 cases ranges between five to 10 years while over 3200 cases took over 10 years for trial to be completed.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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