Nagpur: Amravati city police chief Aarti Singh’s decision to send summons to persons concerned through messages or social media on their respective mobile phones apart from the traditional means has led to a sharp increase in conviction rate of the district.
The new initiative has put Amravati on top of the state conviction rate list for the month of December 2020 with 90.4% followed by Navi Mumbai with 90.26% among the commissionerates.
But among the district police units, Wardha’s conviction rate of 97.56% was highest in the state with Nandurbar’s 97.37% as the close second. Chandrapur too had touched 91.93% but remained behind Nasik rural with 94.77% and Thane with 93.75%.
In the month of December last year, there were around 7,565 cases registered in the state. Out of this, around 5,448 cases ended in conviction which was learnt to be 7% less than the performance in November 2020. On the basis of the monthly statistics of convictions, the state police have started a review of the performance of all units.
Amravati CP Singh said she has strengthened the role of ‘Pairavi adhikaris’ or cops deployed as coordinators in each court which is a unique system in Maharashtra police. “We started a regular practice of scrutinizing court orders and judgments to understand the best practices and also locate the flaws. Based on the performance of convictions and acquittals, we also started a system of rewarding and pulling up any slack approach,” Singh said.
She further said the ‘Pairavi Adhikaris’ or court coordinators have regularly been updated, reviewed and appraised at meetings, seminars and workshops ever since she stepped in. “The court coordinators ensured witnesses turn up on dates and also investigation officers concerned were present during trials,” she said.
Wardha SP Prashant Holkar, buoyed by the last year December’s success in conviction rate in the district, said he ensured the cases of traffic violations and gambling along with prohibitions too were probed in such manners that they ended in convictions. “Chargesheets in cases of assaults and women atrocities were filed within a short time frame to ensure witnesses supported prosecution and did not get time to change their minds to turn hostile. Focus was also kept on the serious cases but the strategy was to ensure equal weightage to other matters also,” he said.