199 ‘offences against state’ in 2020, conviction rate just 5.7% in Haryana: NCRB

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 16

A total of 199 cases were registered in Haryana in 2020 under “offences against state”, while the conviction rate was just 5.7 per cent, says National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report-2020.

Zero conviction rate in cybercrime

• There was a rise of 16.3 per cent in cybercrime in Haryana in 2020, with the registration of 656 cases
• Cases numbering 656 were registered, but the conviction rate was zero. The rate was 13 per cent in 2019
• In 2020, there were 193 cases of publication or transmission of an obscene or sexually explicit act in electronic form

It was a dip from 2019 when 572 FIRs were registered.

In 2020, there were six cases of sedition (under Section 124-A of the IPC), one case for imputation, assertions prejudicial to national integration, two under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, one case under the Official Secrets Act, and 189 FIRs under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

A total of 212 persons were arrested.

Also, there were 85 cases pending investigation from the previous year. So, in total, the police looked into 284 FIRs. While 27 cases ended as false, 45 fell under the head of insufficient evidence or untraced or no clue. The charge-sheets were filed in 163 cases, while 49 cases were still pending at the end of 2020.

In the courts, 3,118 cases were pending from previous years, while 163 were added in 2020. A total of 122 cases were decided by the courts in 2020, out of which 172 people were acquitted in 115 cases, and 10 people were convicted in seven cases. The conviction rate was just 5.7 per cent.

There was a rise of 16.3 per cent in cybercrime in Haryana in 2020, with the registration of 656 cases, but the conviction rate was zero. In comparison, the conviction rate was 13 per cent in 2019.

In 2020, there were 193 cases (29.4 per cent of total) of publication or transmission of an obscene or sexually explicit act in electronic form (Section 67 of the IT Act), 181 cases (27.6 per cent of total) of cheating by personation by using computer resource (Section 66-D of the IT Act) and 26 cases (4 per cent of total) of online banking fraud.

In 157 cases (23.9 per cent of total), the motive was fraud, while sexual exploitation was the intention in 70 (10.7 per cent of total) cases.

Just 11 cases were decided by the courts where nine ended in acquittals and two were quashed. Close to seven arms per day were recovered by the police during 2020 in the state. There was a rise of 11.1 per cent in the recovery of arms, as 2,428 arms were seized. Out of these, just one was licensed, while the rest were unlicensed.

There was a rise of 8.8 per cent in environment-related offences in the state as 57 cases were registered in 2020. These included 15 related to noise pollution, 17 under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, 13 under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, and five under the Air Act, 1981, and Water Act, 1974. Just one case was decided in the court in 2020, which ended in conviction.

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