The Hindu : New Delhi News : Cops under pressure over low conviction rate Law & order

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Cops under pressure over low conviction rate Law & order

Policemen ‘tamper’ with facts as they are rated on the basis of the number of convictions, tells Devesh K. Pandey...

The pressure to get convictions in criminal cases weighs down heavily on policemen as their performance is eventually rated on the basis of the number of convictions they secure. However, in this pursuit they tend to tamper with facts on occasions.

The manner in which incorrect sequence of events is “inadvertently” introduced in a case is reflected in the use of language in the First Information Report. It has been noticed that policemen tend to use a certain format when recording crimes of a similar nature.

In this regard, a police officer says it is done primarily to meet the requirements of the court proceedings, particularly to make sure that it is in consonance with the guidelines laid down under the Evidence Act. “After all, the police have to face cross-examination in the court and so they reconstruct the sequence of events accordingly. But it is also true that in due course, investigating officers become used to a particular style of presentation,” he says, adding that in many instances it has been found that such an approach rather weakens the case.

There are certain aspects of a case that are “tamper-proof”. The approximate timing of the incident, particularly when a call has been made to the Police Control Room; place of incident; and the complainant or the victim. Therefore, the scope of introduction of any fictitious event lies in the other aspects such as the manner in which the incident took place; information on which arrests were made; place and timing of the arrests; and place and timing of recovery.

One of the most crucial aspects is that of a witness. According to the officer, many times it becomes difficult for policemen to get committed witnesses. In most cases, a real witness to a crime who is not directly linked to it or to the victim tends to evade appearance in the court. Ideally, the evidence of a witness should get completed in one or two appearances, but various delay tactics employed by the defence wears down the zeal of the witnesses and they feel harassed unnecessarily. It discourages them and in such a scenario there is no option left but to rely on “professional” witnesses who are well acquainted with the system of cross-examination in courts.

Many officers feel that to bring about a positive change in the system, there is a need to simplify the procedures of documentation and also bring in an element of trust in the police. “Electronic evidence like footage of raids and arrests can be considered to reduce the scope of introducing false facts,” says another police officer, adding that a timely and required amendment in the laws would help bring in more transparency in the police functioning. Otherwise, the system would keep producing policemen like the one who allegedly made several knife-seizures in quick succession in the early 1980s. Interestingly, all the knives had exactly the same specifications. When this was pointed out by the magistrate, the investigating officer’s candid reply was that he had failed to recover a box-full of knives recently sold in the area by a man from Rampur and now he was recovering them one by one.

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