Bombay High Court Lawyer Submits Letter: CJ told to set up fast-track courts for rapes and murders

Mumbai: An advocate of the Bombay High Court has submitted a letter to the acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Vijaya Tahilramani to set up fast-track courts in each district of the State of Maharashtra for cases of rape and murder of women and children as implemented by the Guwahati High Court.

As per the letter written by Dipak Chattopadhyay, advocate of the Bombay High Court, “Mumbai is Maharashtra’s rape capital. It is shocking that there is an increasing trend of crime against women and children in Mumbai. The Department of Women and Children in Mumbai (WCD), Government of Maharashtra need to become more sensitive to curb crimes against women and children. There must be proper guidelines and direction from the Honourable High Court sensitive to the awareness program among the society. The onus is on the State Government of Maharashtra to acts swiftly and punish the perpetrators.”

“The intervention of the Bombay High Court is necessary to direct the Women and Children department to curb the crimes against women and children. I request the Bombay High Court to set up fast track courts for rape and murder cases Maharashtra state against women and children like Guwahati High Court. The HC should issue a direction to the State government in this matter at the earliest, “stated the letter.

On March 26, the Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, in a letter on March 26, had urged the Chief Justice of Guwahati High court to consider setting up exclusive fast track courts in the wake of the rape and murder of a minor girl at Nagaon district at Guwahati.

Speaking to the Free Press Journal, advocate Dipak Chattopadhyay said, “An administrative committee consisting of the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court and senior judges should be set up by the High Court to work out the modalities and submit a report to the government.” As per the data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau, out of 4356 women who were raped in Maharashtra, twenty per cent of the women were from Mumbai.

Among the 12,238 cases of molestation, 15 per cent of the cases were from Mumbai, of which 284 victims were minors and 2268 cases of molestation were registered in Mumbai. The average detection rate in the cases of rape is 80 per cent. 7,113 cases of kidnapping of women were registered in state out of which 1292 cases were reported in Mumbai.