A presentation made by the director general of police (DGP) to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray revealed that, in most of rape cases, the accused are known to the victim. To substantiate the argument, the DGP analysed statistics from 2018 to May 2021.
Of the 5,889 accused involved in the 4,974 rape cases in 2018, a record 5,855 were known and only 34 were unkown. Of the 6,204 accused in the 5,416 cases in 2019, 6,098 were known and 106 were unknown. Of the 5,784 accused in the 4,853 cases in 2020, 5,696 were known and 88 were unknown. Of the 2,557 accused in the rape cases up to May 2021, 2,529 were known and 28 were unknown.
A home department officer said the involvement of known persons is established in these cases. Reasons such as internal conflicts or disputes over money have triggered such incidents.
Further, the conviction rate in rape cases was 14.48% in 2017, 17.40% in 2018, 15.06% in 2019, 25.26% in 2020, 23.89% up to July 2020 and 21.27% up to July 2021. The total convection rate of IPC cases was 56.22% up to July 2021.
As far as the crimes against women are concerned, 19,670 were reported up to June 2019, 14,327 were reported up to June 2020 and 18,020 were reported up to June 2021.
