A Grim Crime Scerio

The crime scerio in Assam seems to be getting worse with every passing day. What is a matter for serious concern is the ture of the crimes being committed every day. Crimes like rape and murder as also the sale of women and girls in other States have increased alarmingly. There have been too many cases of gang rape followed by the murder of the victim. And in several cases, all the culprits have not been apprehended. Likewise, there has been a quantum increase in the number of girls and women being sold in other States. Mercifully, our police force has been able to crack down on quite a few of these cases of flesh trade, but considering the tecity with which such crimils persist in their crimes, it remains to be seen how long a police force, chronically short of the required number of personnel, can cope with such crimes and crimils with the present level of success. Far worse are cases of gang rape often followed by the murder of the victims. What is distressing is the customary law’s delay even in respect of such crimes. People of the State would have justifiably expected to see a succession of quick trials and convictions that would have put the fear of the law in every perspective crimil. Unfortutely, what is happening is that due to the long delay in the trial of such crimils and their eventual convictions, an increasing number of crimils have begun to actually use the law’s delay to buy time. The general expectation of the culprit is that he would not be tried and sentenced for quite a few years. It is this kind of an unfortute scerio that motivates crimils to indulge in the worst form of crimes because they do not expect any punishment for years together. One way out of this perverse situation is for the police force to put about 50 to 100 cases of heinous crimes on the fast track so that trials and convictions are completed in a matter of two months. If the prosecutor and the judiciary can cooperate to avoid the law’s delay in just 100 cases, we might see the beginnings of the fear of law bringing down the crime rate sharply.