Jamshedpur, March 27: The East Singhbhum police have something to cheer about. The conviction rate in the district has improved.

During the past 70 days, 15 accused have been convicted in the sessions trial court and first judicial magistrate’s courts. Of those convicted, maximum were booked under the Arm Act, followed by assault case, attempted murder, robbery and theft, murder and kidnapping.

Prominent among the cases disposed of recently include the abduction of Narveram Hansraj English School student. The four accused in the case were awarded life-term. The case of attempted murder of a child by father, in which the accused was sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and the Potka Explosive Act case in which the accused, Santu Singh, was sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment are worth mentioning.

Besides, several cases pertaining to murder and dowry death are in the advanced stages. Session cases registered as recently as July are scheduled to be disposed of in next couple of months.

What is unique is that all the witnesses are turning up to depose before the court and are supporting the line of prosecution for which accused are being convicted.

The conviction rate has gone up as the police are focusing on the trial procedures, especially the process of deposition of witness.

To ensure that a witness of any criminal case appears in the court on time for the deposition and depose supporting the prosecution line, the superintendent of police of East Singhbhum, Naveen Kumar Singh, has set up a mechanism. Singh has formed a taskforce comprising a deputy superintendent of police and two sub-inspectors. An assistant sub-inspector level officer in each of the police stations has been made nodal officer, whose work is to ensure that the prosecution witness turns up in the court.

“In all those cases in which the accused were convicted, we had to approach each and every witness by going to their house and convince them that depositing in the court is an act of justice. When we took the witnesses in confidence they deposed fearlessly and eventually the convicts were punished,” said one of the members of the taskforce.

“In Sunil Singh alias Buda murder case that took place in Mango July last year, all the important witnesses have deposed. And it is likely that the sessions court will make the judgement in the next couple of months,” said a police officer.

The superintendent of police said he had pursued the mechanism for speedy and result-oriented trials of the accused because it was the only way to curb the rising crime graph.

Singh pointed out that people have the tendency to forget the cases as time passes. “But if the trials are held in fast pace and the process of prosecution is closely followed then, the victims would hardly re-track or deviate from his or her path and would depose against the accused in normal course,” he said.

“When people would realise that committing a crime would lead them to rigorous punishment they would tend to refrain from committing crime,” observed the superintendent of police, informing that more and more accused would be convicted in the days to come.