Guwahati: Prolonged insurgency has affected the criminal justice system in Northeast with the rate of prosecution of criminals just five per cent in some states in the region as compared to the national figure of over 85 per cent, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Saturday.
"...Now the time has come when apart from insurgency- centric security, we must think, plan and deliver on people-centric security," he told a security meeting of all north east Chief Ministers here.
"The people of the region have suffered the trauma of insurgency for long. Now they must reap the dividend of peace. Insurgency has adversely impacted the criminal justice system," he said.
"It has severely undermined common man's access to justice. In some N-E states, ratio of prosecution of criminals in cases of serious crimes is disturbingly low, as low as five per cent as against all-India figure of over 85 per cent. In cases of kidnapping for ransom, this data is negligible in NER," Singh said.
However, there has been a marked increase in low-visibility yet high-impact violent crimes like kidnapping for ransom and extortions in Assam and Meghalaya, he noted.
When aggrieved people do not get justice from states, not only does their confidence in the system gets eroded but they also become prone to alternative course for justice and it further vitiates the environment, he said.
"The state police must pay greater attention to registration and investigation of crimes and pursue the cases diligently in the courts for punishing the criminals, who commit heinous crimes in these states. The larger criminal justice system must deliver," Singh said.
To bring back confidence in the rule of law, the Home Minister urged the Chief Ministers to pay attention to it in their respective states.
