Mangaluru: Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights T.B. Jayachandra on Tuesday said lack of conviction and least respect for the law has led to the increase in crime against women. 

Addressing presspersons here in the city, the minister stressed that there is no fear of law among people and cited that the less conviction rate has been one of the reasons for such a development. “The government wants to create awareness among the public on law, he said emphasizing the need to improve conviction rate by strengthening the infrastructure and manpower in courts in the state.

Magistrate to record victim statements

In order to speed up rape trials, the Government of Karnataka is contemplating to implement ‘statement 164’ – where the rape victim will be directly taken to a magistrate for recording her statement within 24 hours of the crime, after registering a complaint at the police station, said.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, he said there is no need for a victim to record statement before the police and then again before a magistrate. This new procedure would put an end to repeated recording of the statements, which is the primary reason for delay and sometimes the victim is tend to turn hostile, he said.

He said although there are fast-track courts for disposal of such cases, we have so many cases pending before the special court. “If a victim’s statement was recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by a magistrate, it would be treated as her deposition for the trial”, he said.

1577 cases under POCSO Act 

He said there are as many as 1577 cases registered across the state under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, till date. Among them, only 281 cases are disposed while 1,296 cases are pending. With the new procedure, we are planning to finish all the pending cases in one year, he stressed.

Among the 1577 cases, Bangalore topped the list with a whopping 400 cases, while there are 59 cases in Dakshina Kannada, he said.