More than 40 per cent of the cases filed in Rajasthan in the year 2020 under The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were found to be fake, according to data available with the Rajasthan Police.
Rajasthan Police’s same report has also revealed that 39.55 per cent of all cases filed for atrocities against women were also found to be fake.
The details were announced in an annual press conference at the Rajasthan Police Headquarters at Jaipur on January 11.
According to the data available with the Rajasthan state government, under the SC/ST Act, cases involving individuals belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) went up by 3 per cent while those involving members of Scheduled Tribes went up by 5 percent.
However, according to the state police records, as many as 42.17 per cent of all cases filed for atrocities against SCs and 40.04 per cent cases filed for atrocities against STs were found to be fake during investigations.
Police officials said that a total of 7,017 cases were registered for atrocities against SCs in 2020. Of these, the police filed a Final Report (adam vaku) in 2,959 cases — “FR (adam vaku)” is filed when during the investigation, it is found that the alleged offence did not occur. Similarly, a total of 1,878 cases were filed for atrocities against STs in 2020 and, of these, FR (adam vaku) was filed in 752 or 40.04 per cent cases.
DGP M L Lather told reporters that barring the two offences of murder and attempt to murder, cases lodged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2020 had decreased by 14.21 per cent, mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Regarding crime against women, there has been a drop of 16.49 per cent in registration of such cases — from 41,115 in 2019 to 34,368 cases in 2020. These figures include the numbers of dowry death, rape, molestation, kidnapping, and so on. Of the total 34,368 cases filed in 2020, 13,594 or 39.55 per cent cases were found to be fake.
In 2020, a total of 1.93 lakh IPC cases were lodged across Rajasthan. 47,481 or 24.57 per cent of the total — nearly every fourth case — were found to be fake. An FIR was filed in 29,917 cases after the police could not find the given evidence or in absence of evidence.