Karnataka is about to launch 33 devoted police stations to deal with instances underneath the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the delivery anniversary of B R Ambedkar on Monday.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah introduced organising the police stations through the 2023-24 price range speech. There might be one such police station in each district and two in Bengaluru. The particular police stations might be headed by deputy superintendents of police or assistant commissioners of police and value the state exchequer Rs 73 crore per 12 months.
Beneath the brand new system, atrocity complaints will first be lodged on the native police station after which transferred to the particular models. The Further Director Normal of Police (Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement) will assign an investigating officer, who will take over the case from the Sub-Divisional Police Officer and submit findings to the courtroom.
The launch of the particular police stations comes within the wake of a dip in conviction charges underneath the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act – from 2.16 per cent in 2021 to a dismal 0.07 per cent in 2024. In a latest assembly of the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee, CM Siddaramaiah even expressed his dissatisfaction over the poor conviction charges.
“The conviction charge hasn’t crossed 3 per cent in many years. Delayed investigations – particularly in instances of homicide and rape – hamper justice and permit destruction of proof. Victims already bear the burden of proof, and sluggish probes solely add to their trauma,” Siddaramaiah had stated. He directed officers to push the conviction charge above 10 per cent and maintain quarterly critiques with public prosecutors and cops.
In keeping with information from the Social Welfare Division, 28 per cent of atrocity instances have seen counter-complaints. Since 2022, over 7,600 instances have been registered underneath the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Karnataka, however solely 68 have resulted in convictions.
Karnataka is the sixth state – after Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh – to determine devoted police stations for atrocity instances.