Convictions in only 16 of 4,214 woman-related cases in 10 yrs

Justice was finally delivered in the December 2012 gang-rape case, four years after the crime, with the Supreme Court upholding the death sentence for four convicts on Friday.

Here, in Bengaluru, thousands of women, molested and raped over the past decade, still await justice. The police had booked 150 cases relating to rape, molestation and attempt to outrage a woman’s modesty in 2006. The number went up to 923 in 2016. And, in just one month this year (January), the city had reported 104 such crimes.

While the crimes have gone up more than six-fold in a decade, the rate of conviction is a shockingly low 0.37 %. Of 4,214 cases registered between 2006 and 2016, only 16 have seen convictions.

Victims in as many as 4,198 cases await justice, while the accused remain scot free, according to police statistics. “There could be an equal number of unreported rapes and molestations,” said a senior officer from the Crime Branch.

The city has grown beyond all expectations, and policing has come up against new problems. Night-shift jobs are common now. Migrants are more difficult to monitor than those who have lived here for decades. Street lighting is poor on the outskirts. Each of these factors adds to the menace, police say.

False and shabby

Some cases are false, by their reckoning. “Our investigation indicates that at least 30% of complaints are not serious. Some women project themselves as victims and lodge complaints to get even. We are helpless in such situations as we are duty-bound to register cases,” the officer told DH.

Investigation is shabby in many cases. “Investigating officers are frequently transferred. The police focus only on major cases, and the victims lose interest once a case is registered and the accused arrested,” a senior woman officer, who served in the city till recently,  said.