State police need forensic training, bridge gap with prosecutors: Report

However, when it came to convictions, only 57,805 persons were convicted in 2020 in Gujarat while 65, 361 were acquitted by court. Only UP and Maharashtra had a bigger acquittal rate than Gujarat. The state ranked eighth in order when it came to convictions.

According to RRU officials, the Gujarat Police in 2021, had tasked them to conduct an assessment report on lower conviction rate in criminal cases lodged in Gujarat especially heinous offences including the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cases.

RRU, which is a Gandhinagar based institute under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) specialises in internal security and policing.

On Friday, an RRU team tabled the “Training Need Assessment Consultancy Project Report on Conviction Rate Improvement for Gujarat Police ” to the Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat CID Crime TS Bisht and DGP Training Vikas Sahay at Police Bhavan in Gandhinagar. The report will be used at the Karai based Gujarat Police Academy to train probation officers and personnel, informed Gujarat Police officials.

The report has been prepared by Dr Anand Kumar Tripathi, Pro Vice Chancellor, Dr Akshat Mehta, Associate Professor and Abhishek Awadh, assistant professor at the school of internal security and police administration at RRU.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Dr Tripathi said, “The conviction rate was low in Gujarat so there was a tie up with Gujarat Police in which the intent was to do an assessment of the issue and find reasons behind it. We did a meta analysis of different orders by the Supreme Court, High Courts and Sessions courts to understand the intricacies of each case and what went right as well as wrong on which step.”

“We singled out only cases of murder, attempt to murder, rape and Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) act, NDPS act, atrocity act and cyber crimes. We also sat down with judicial officers and public prosecutors to discuss cases,” he added.

Dr Tripathi added that the assessment report contains certain suggestions for the Gujarat Police which will be used for their training.

“What we have found out is that factors such as lack of forensic training among beat cops, gap between police and prosecutors, witness statements, method of evidence collection, delay in investigation were some of the reasons behind low conviction rate,” said Tripathi.

“We have suggested that if a police team visits a crime spot then there should be atleast one forensic trained officer among them, who can ensure that the scene is not contaminated. Also efforts should be made to bridge the vacuum between police and prosecutors,” he added.