Gujarat fares poor in conviction record

AHMEDABAD: Crimes against Dalits in Gujarat is far lesser than what the Centre reported earlier, says police data, but the bad news for the community is in the state’s poor conviction record in such cases.

An RTI reply by the Gujarat DGP said 1,052 cases of crime against Dalits were reported in 2015.

This is a sixth of the figure of 6,655 cases of atrocities against SCs in 2015, according to data circulated for a meeting in the social justice ministry on Thursday.

But the RTI reply still painted a grim picture for Dalits, reporting a mere 8% conviction rate. This may be an improvement by Gujarat’s standards. According to National Crime Records Bureau, the conviction rate for crimes against SCs was just 2.5% in 2013, against a national average conviction rate of 23.8%.

The RTI reply also reported more than 4,500 pending cases and the rape of a SC woman every fourth day. HT accessed a copy of the RTI reply that was released on June 4.

The data comes at a time when Gujarat has erupted in protests against the stripping and flogging of four Dalit youth by a cow vigilante group in Una for allegedly skinning a dead animal.

Prominent politicians have rushed to the poll-bound state and state authorities have showered compensation upon the victims. But the RTI reply shows the four victims were part of a broader pattern of violence, in which three Dalit men are thrashed in the state every day.