Raising concern over the rise in cases of cruelty in
West Bengal against women by their husbands or relatives but low rates
of conviction, a non-government organisation has approached both the
State government and the State Human Rights Commission.
According
to the statistics revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
last month or the year 2012, the number of cases registered under
Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the State was 19,885 —
about 18.6 per cent of those recorded in the country, which totalled
about 1.06 lakh cases.
Referring to the NCRB data,
members of the city-based NGO “Hridaya,” pointed out that while
conviction in the rest of the country in cases registered under the
Section was 15 per cent, it stood around 4.4 per cent in West Bengal.
“This
begs the question whether or not most of these cases were registered by
the women with the motive of falsely implicating their spouses and his
relatives?” Amit Gupta, secretary, Hridaya.
The NCRB
data over the past three years points out that conviction of cases
registered under Section 498A varies between four and six per cent while
the number of cases has increased by 11 per cent from 2010 to 2012.
West
Bengal registered 30,984 cases of crime against women in 2012 — the
highest in the country — of which 64 per cent were registered under
Section 498A of the IPC, Mr. Gupta pointed out.
“Our
objective is to spread awareness about the high number of cases
registered for cruelty against women by their spouses and relatives. The
law enforcement agencies should have specific guidelines to register
cases under this section as majority of the cases are not ending in
conviction,” he added.
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