Fast track courts and Rape Capital
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 23 2015 -

It was a revelation indeed.

A recent news report said that Delhi despite the existence of fast track courts to deal with rape cases, trial of more than 93 per cent of them are pending for the last three years.

The report said prosecution records have revealed that the police worked out 3,936 of the 4,508 rape cases - which is slightly more than 87 per cent - reported between 2012 and 2014.

Charge-sheets were filed in 3,575 of the 3,936 cases worked out.

The report further mentioned that trial of as many as 3,330 of the charge-sheeted cases, pertaining to the same period, are pending at courts.

As per amendments in the law, incorporated after the December 16, 2012 rape and murder incident, charge-sheets in connection with rape cases are to be filed within 20 days of work out, revealed a senior police official.

It may be mentioned that there are nine fast tracks courts in Delhi, which are exclusively set up to deal with cases of sexual assault. Six of them were set up in 2013 and three were added earlier this year.

It has also been observed that the number of rape cases jumped three-fold from 706 in 2012 to 2,166 in 2014, largely due to increase in reportage and also because of amendments in the penal code.

However, number of cases withdrawn also jumped two-fold from 26 in 2012 to 52 in 2015. According to analysis on rape cases conducted recently by Delhi Police, in around 77 per cent cases, the perpetrators were relatives, friends or acquaintances, of which, around 15 per cent were cases of incest.

In around 16.5 per cent cases, the perpetrators were neighbours and they were colleagues in around 3 per cent cases. In more than 52 per cent cases, the accused are aged between 18 and 25 years, revealed records.

A casual look at the statistics given in the report can easily justify the contention that Delhi has become the rape Capital of India.

However, what the statistics have not revealed is the class background of the victims despite the fact that in most of the cases, the brutal act was committed by “relatives, friends or acquaintances”.