There are thousands of criminal cases being registered but comparatively very few prosecutions, Nongpoh MLA Mayralborn Syiem complained in the Assembly today.
East Khasi Hills, the most populous district, unsurprisingly has the highest number of criminal cases registered in the state at 5,196 over the 2020-23 period.
This was informed by Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong in the house today.
Syiem raised the need to fast-track cases since crimes against women and children have increased to 2,821 in the last three and a half years but only 84 have been prosecuted.
“The government should have a consultation with the judiciary for fast-track conviction of all these cases registered,” he urged.
Syiem also expressed his concern about the lack of proper facilities in terms of the forensic lab available in Shillong.
“Most of the samples have to be sent outside the state and that takes time. I would like to know what’s the status or the capacity of the present forensics lab we have in Shillong and what are the steps taken to improve the facility so that we can have a fast-track investigation and conviction,” Syiem said.
Tynsong said that several steps have been taken by the government to control crime in the state and also to tackle crimes against women.
The government has created a separate directorate on forensic labs, wherein the functioning of this directorate is independent and controlled by the Home Department. He added that, recently, a few proposals have been submitted to the government by the directorate to strengthen the functioning of this department.
“The government has approved the proposal submitted by the directorate and we have acquired a few important instruments that were required to ensure that cases pending are fast-tracked and that those tests which were earlier sent outside Meghalaya are no longer needed and are now done here itself,” the minister said.
Concerning the low rate of conviction, Tynsong acknowledged that the MLA rightly mentioned that reaching to a stage of prosecution and conviction takes a lot of time and that it really looks very discouraging.
However, as far as chargesheets are concerned, Tynsong said that the police complete this task as soon as possible.
