Delhi worried as 'high-impact' violent crimes go up

Assam-Meghalaya border

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, July 11: The Union Home Ministry today expressed concern over the "marked increase in low visibility yet high-impact violent crimes, like kidpping for ransom and extortions" in Assam and Meghalaya and called for strengthening of the crimil justice system.

"It (the increase in such crimes) has severely undermined common man's access to justice. In some states, ratio of prosecution of crimils in cases of serious crimes is disturbingly low, as low as 5 per cent against the tiol average of over 85 per cent," Union Home minister Rajth Singh said.

Singh said in cases of kidpping for ransom, the prosecution rate in Northeast is negligible.

"You would appreciate that when the aggrieved persons do not get justice from the states, not only do their confidence in the system gets eroded but they also become more prone to altertive courses for justice, which further vitiates the environment," he said, asking the state police forces to pay greater attention in registering and investigating the crimes and to pursue the cases diligently in the courts for getting the crimils punished.

Singh also called for setting up of special investigation cells to tackle cases of extortion and kidpping for ransom.

The Union Home Minister also said the region is awash with illegal firearms. "Weapons are smuggled from across the border and sold in the region and even beyond. We are aware of places like Dimapur being centers for marketing of such smuggled weapons. Existence of illegal weapons will continue encouraging crimes and vitiating the security eco-system of the region," Singh said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma admitted that splinter groups of insurgent outfits are indulging in crimil activities and creating law and order problems in the state.

 "Law and order situation is difficult in five districts of Garo Hills due to militant and crimil activities like extortion, kidpping and killings," the CM added.

He pointed out that while a few of these elements have political ideology and demands, most are purely crimil in ture and are being dealt with firmly.

Some of these militants are also receiving assistance from Assam-based outfits like ULFA, NDFB and KPLT, he added.

The Meghalaya CM also pointed to the porous border with Bangladesh and urged for effective measures by the Central government to check it.

Border fencing alone cannot deter movement of illegal migrants, front line vigil by the BSF needs to be strengthened, Dr Sangma added.