The Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, after being passed by the State Assembly, gave much-needed hope to the people of the State that justice delivery would be made a timebound process.
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However, going by the pendency of cases in various courts in Prakasam district, delivering speedy justice appears to be a daunting task.
A recent case that had sent shockwaves in the area was the double murder within Maddipadu police station limits on December 3, in which the bodies were set ablaze by the culprits to destroy evidence. The case was cracked swiftly by the Prakasam police. This sensational case is one among a total of 4,475 cases that are under investigation by the police, while a whopping 12,833 cases are pending trial for years. These include 1,915 cases pending trial for over five years and 2,507 cases which are pending trial for the last one year.
Normally, the police handles a case from the stage of filing a First Information Report (FIR) till the filing of a chargesheet and handing over the baton to public prosecutors (PPs) and assistant public prosecutors (APPs) who then handle the case till judgment is delivered by the court.
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With a view to ensure speedy disposal of cases, the Prakasam police had taken an initiative to sit with the public prosecutors and address issues leading to delay in disposal of cases like returning of chargesheets for various reasons.
“We have decided to hold a series of meetings from time to time to remove the bottlenecks and ensure disposal of cases pending trial for long time,” said Prakasam Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal after a coordination committee meeting here with public prosecutors and assistant public prosecutos to improve the conviction rate in cases.
Capacity-building
Prakasam police have also started capacity building of the police personnel at the grassroots-level to be fully geared up to complete the investigation and file chargesheet in a week in cases of sexual assault as and when the Disha Bill becomes an Act.
In as many as 802 cases, though chargesheets had been filed, assigning of criminal case numbers was yet be done by courts. As many as 1,246 cases were pending for more than four years, 1,617 cases for over 3 years, and 2,416 cases for over 2 years. Altogether 3,132 cases have been pending for the last one year.
In 2019, trial was conducted in 2,191 cases in various courts of Prakasam district. In 101 cases, the accused were convicted, including in six SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cases as against conviction in 141 cases in 2018. As many as 3,040 cases were disposed of through alternative dispute resolution method in Lok Adalat courts during 2019, according to a report compiled by the District Crime Records Bureau.