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| Published in The Hitavada on January 16, 2012 |
Maharashtra records only 0.69% conviction in Naxal offences!
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Poor investigation, vague chargesheet, weak prosecution, and lack of
supportive legal provisions are factors widely responsible for such a
poor conviction rate
By Kartik Lokhande
Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is present in
Maharashtra for over 30 years in the form of Naxalites and now Maoists.
They have been involved in many incidents of brutal killings of innocent
tribals and cops, arson, looting of weapons, assault etc. However,
Maharashtra has proved to be a safe haven for them from legal point of
view. Reason? Maharashtra scores high on poor investigation, vague
chargesheet, weak prosecution, and also lacks supportive legal
provisions. As a result, conviction rate in Naxal offences in
Maharashtra is a shocking 0.69 per cent, that is, conviction is less
than one per cent in Naxal cases!!
The shocking data has come to fore from police records obtained from
different sources including Gadchiroli Police, Anti-Naxalite Operations,
and Police Headquarters in Mumbai. As against 2,291 Naxal offences
registered in Maharashtra till 2010, conviction was recorded only in 16,
repeat 16, cases! It not only shows apathy of the investigating
machinery as well as police prosecutors, but also underlines neglect of
the Government towards such a serious lapse. While the poor conviction
rate in cases of wildlife killing has been at the centre of attraction
for quite a few years now, abysmally poor conviction rate in cases of
killings of tribals in remote areas of Maharashtra has failed to attract
attention of even the legal rights activists as well as legal
luminaries and even judges.
As per the official data, Gadchiroli district recorded 1589, the highest
number, of Naxal offences but conviction was only in 12 cases. Other
cases of conviction were recorded in offences that took place in
Chandrapur and Nandurbar districts of State, and that too, were recorded
way back. In Gondia, which is a hot-spot of LWE activities after
Gadchiroli, not a single conviction is on record. In Nagpur city and
Nagpur (Rural), six and five Naxal offences were registered over the
years, but not a single case saw conviction.
Recently, Arun Thomas Ferreira who was arrested in May 2007 along with
three others near Deekshabhoomi (Nagpur) for Maoist connections, walked
free. There are quite a few cases that were registered in police
stations under the jurisdiction of Nagpur City Police. May it be Nagpur
Police or Gadchiroli Police, everywhere problems are the same.
According to top-level sources in police hierarchy, there are lacunae in
investigation and filing of chargesheet that weakened the case legally.
Citing an example, an officer said, whenever a case happened in remote
corner of Gadchiroli, cops registered case against ‘10-15 unidentified
Naxalites’. It not only indicated poor Intelligence as to who were the
persons involved in a crime, but also made the task of prosecutors
difficult. Even if a person was caught later and there were reasons to
believe that he/she was involved in that particular incident, it was a
tough task for prosecution to prove that person’s involvement in a crime
where his/her name was not mentioned in FIR. Even in cases wherein
names of Naxalites were mentioned, the accused walked free because the
outlaws operate with many aliases and it was difficult to prove that
‘Akash’ was ‘Vijay’ and the like. As a result, when the case came up for
hearing, prosecution was in trouble always.
Another aspect that has led to dismal conviction rate is lack of
interest from the side of police prosecutors, said a police officer.
“Many a times, police prosecutors sought next dates thus keeping the
matter pending. In some cases, police prosecutors did not counter
arguments of lawyers appearing for Naxals with equal passion and
profound knowledge,” the officer told ‘The Hitavada’.
Then, there is difficulty on the front of legal provisions also. Maoist
Communist Centre (MCC) and People’s War merged in October 2004 to form
CPI (Maoist). However, it took four full years for the Central
Government to include CPI (Maoist) in the list of banned organisations.
Till 2008, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA was not amended
to include CPI (Maoist) and all its formations and front organisations
in the list of organisations banned under the Act. As the amendment was
effected in 2008, those arrested before the amendment on charges of
being Maoists or their sympathisers or acting in their front
organisations and formations, could not be convicted. On this technical
ground, many dreaded Naxals and Maoists got released.
Besides, there is a difficulty in defining a Maoist or a Naxalite, a
frontal organisation, and formation of CPI (Maoist). Long back, sources
said, a proposal was made to the Government of Maharashtra to pursue the
Central Government to define these key-words so that the outlaws would
not escape on technical grounds that a Maoist or frontal organisation or
formation of CPI (Maoist) were not defined in law.
“All these are tricky issues, from legal and investigation points of
view. However, if the Government does not come up with well-calibrated
and well-devised response to investigation methodology, prosecution
difficulties, proper training of prosecutors as well as judges, and
amendments to various laws; the outlaws will continue to benefit from
legal loopholes, and the State will continue to draw flak on conviction
rate,” said a police officer who is familiar with these aspects.
Whether Maharashtra Home Ministry and Union Home Ministry analyse the
situation seriously, and whether both come up with a co-ordinated
response to the situation, will decide the Government success or failure
on conviction front, feel the experts.
Status of major cases in Nagpur Police jurisdiction
*
In 2004, four persons including a woman were arrested for operating a
secret arms factory in Gittikhadan area of the city. These four included
Latakka alias Danakka Gowda, Fagulal alias Mohan Santu Tekam, Shyamlal
alias Shyamu Salame, and Sampat alias Sanjay Gyansingh Madavi. One of
their accomplices Prakash Gowda was successful in escaping. According to
police sources, Prakash Gowda was never found and other four got
acquitted after they claimed that cops had placed barrels, dye, and
lathe to implicate them falsely. The prosecution failed to produce
evidence of manufactured arms, and despite seizure of parts used to
assemble arms, all of the accused got acquitted in the case.
* In 2005, Madanlal alias Azad alias Shankar Ogge alias Chandramouli was
booked at Ganeshpeth Police Station. According to police records, he
got acquitted.
* In 2006, City Police got a major success when they
intercepted a Tavera jeep with arms concealed in it. Records show that
cops nabbed Ravi Chevuri, Jaipal alias Nageshwar, Sunilkumar
Vishnuprasad, D Giriprasad, and Laxman Acharya. The case is still in
court, show the police records.
* In 2007, City Police nabbed four persons including Arun Thomas
Ferreira, Murli alias Ashok Satya Reddy, Dhanendra Bhurle, Naresh
Bansod. All of them have got acquitted in one after another cases.
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