Crimes aplenty but conviction rate low

Filing of false cases, lack of evidence, out of court settlements and weak police investigation are some of the main reasons for low conviction rate under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2000, according to a research.

The study shows that from 2009 to 2014, the overall conviction rate of the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjaton Daman (Women and Children Repression Prevention) Tribunals of Dhaka, Comilla and Pabna was only 0.86 percent.

This means, no one was convicted in 99.14 percent cases.

During the same period, 37,915 cases were filed in the three districts under the law, 22,073 (58.22 percent) cases were disposed of, 21,492 cases saw acquittal, dismissal or out of court settlements and 186 cases saw conviction.

The statistics were shared at a programme at the Brac Centre yesterday, where the research report on “Reasons behind low conviction rate and legislative inconsistencies in the Violence Against Women (VAW) cases” was released.

The research project, implemented by Brac University's School of Law, was conducted with data collected from seven Nari-o-Shishu Nirjaton Daman Tribunals of Dhaka, Comilla and Pabna.

The six-month study was done with support from the law ministry project Justice Sector Facility (JSF), which is funded by the UNDP.

Research associates SM Atia Naznin and Tanjina Sharmin presented the findings of the report.

Twenty four judges, public prosecutors and defence lawyers were interviewed for the study. They also mentioned case backlogs, technicalities of law, dissatisfactory role of prosecution lawyers and harshness of punishment under the 2000 Act as reasons for low conviction.

Replying to questions from reporters, both the researchers said they wanted to talk to the police officials concerned but were denied interview.

Analysis of a number of Supreme Court judgments and case studies from trial courts showed that lack of sound reasoning and excessive use of jurisdiction by trial court, framing of wrong charge by the tribunals and inappropriate procedure of trial are some other reasons why there is a low conviction rate, the study found.

“Most of the cases filed under this Act are dowry related,” research associate Sharmin said, adding that women were often ill-advised to file cases under this law even when it was not applicable.

“Conviction in dowry related cases are the lowest according to the participants, while the number of rape cases filed is the lowest but has high conviction rate,” said Naznin.

Commenting on the findings, eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik, director of Brac's Law School, questioned whether the filing of false cases was a reflection of the patriarchal society.

Brac University Vice-chancellor Syed Saad Andaleeb, UNDP's JSF project's Chief Technical Adviser Christian Eldon, and Brac University's Law School Head of Undergraduate Programme Prof K Shamsuddin Mahmood also spoke at the programme.