Worried over poor conviction in atrocity cases, National Commission for Scheduled Castes member P.M. Kamalamma on Friday exhorted the district administration to double up efforts to ensure early disposal of the cases.
Reviewing the cases and relief provided under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, she said the NCSC would hold a special review meeting in Vijayawada in the second week of November to render justice to the victims of atrocities.
She asked revenue and police officials to work “wholeheartedly” to improve the conviction rate and ensure justice to the downtrodden sections of people.
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It was submitted by District Revenue Officer Noor Basha Qasim that no case ended in conviction in the last four years when as many as 598 atrocity cases were registered.
Only three cases ended in conviction in the previous three years when 436 SC/ST cases were reported. Much to her chagrin, 441 cases were closed as “false cases”. As many as 137 cases were pending trial in different courts in the district with a maximum of 46 cases in 2014, followed by 42 cases in 2013 and 16 in 2015, 11 cases in 2012, 10 cases in 2011, 4 cases in 2009, 2 in 2007 and one case each in 1996, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikanth explained that the victims inability to provide evidence was responsible for a large number of cases getting closed as “false cases”.
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In many cases it was difficult to prove that a person had abused the victims by his/her caste name for want of witnesses. Most of the complaints related to land disputes, she told reporters later. She wanted the district administration to be liberal in providing general funds for improvement of the lot of SCs and STs, while strictly spending the allocation under SC/ST sub-plans only for them.