J&K tardy in pace of investigation, trial in cyber-crimes, crimes

Records fair performance in charge-sheeting such crimes

Irfan Tramboo

Srinagar, Sept 20: While J&K has witnessed an increase in cyber crimes, the pace of the investigation, trial and subsequent conviction in these cases has been recorded low in the recent National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report that has been issued.
As per the data for the year 2020, a total number of 33 such cases have been disposed of by the police, while as there are 261 cases where the investigation is still pending.
The data revealed that there is over 88 per cent of such cases where the investigation is pending, while as, with regard to the trial of such cases in the courts, there are around 68 cases from the previous year where the trial is still pending; while as 14 cases have been sent for trial during the year 2020.
It is to be noted here that as per NCRB, no conviction in such cases has been made in the year 2020 while it has also underlined that there are nearly 98 % of cases where the trial is still pending
Concerning the uptick in the cases, J&K has witnessed an increase in Cyber Crimes in the last few years with over 100 such cases reported in the year 2020 across the Union Territory as per the report.
The report stated that around 73 cases each were reported in 2018 and 2019 while as around 120 such cases were recorded in the year 2020. The overall rate of Cyber Crimes has been stated as 0.9% while the charge sheeting rate of such cases has been stated over 42% in J&K.
In the year 2020, 8 cases of cheating by personation by using computer resources under Section 66D were registered while 38 cases were reported for Publication/ transmission of obscene/ sexually explicit act in electronic form. At the same time, 25 cases have been registered under other subsections of Section 67 IT Act
Further, the data revealed that there are 174 such cases including that of 120 cases that were reported in the year 2020 where the investigation is still pending. Therefore, there are a total of 294 such cases where the investigation is pending. During the year, as per data, 33 males were arrested in connection with several cases while 23 persons were charge-sheeted.
Further, the report has also come up with data on crimes against the state in which J&K has recorded the highest rate. In J&K, 281 such cases were reported in 2018, 284 cases in 2019 and 317 cases in 2020.
While as Rate of Offences against State has been stated as 2.4 which highest in the country the charge sheeting rate in such cases has been recorded as 69 per cent
As per figures, there are around 760 such cases from the previous year where the investigation is still lying pending while as, 317 such cases were reported in 2020. At the same time, 3 such cases were reopened of investigation, taking a total number of cases for investigation to 1080.
Out of 1080 such cases, there are over 84 per cent of cases where the investigation is pending. At the same time, at least 443 cases from the previous year have not been put to trial while a further 118 cases have been sent for trial during the year, taking the number of cases that are to be tried in the court to 561.
The report stated that there have been 14 cases that have been abated by the court while 14 such cases have been disposed of without trial.