Agartala, Oct. 4: Tripura High Court yesterday constituted two fast-track courts to deal with cases of crimes against women.

According to a formal notification issued by the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court, Deepak Gupta, court number five of the additional district and sessions judge and court number four of the chief judicial magistrate will now function as fast-track courts.

The fast-track courts will come up in a phased manner in all the district headquarters and then in the subdivisions. The notification said all pending cases of crimes against women will be transferred to these two courts.

The formation of fast-track courts had been discussed in the recently concluded monsoon session of the Tripra Assembly. On September 30, law minister Justice Tapan Chakraborty told the Assembly that the Union law and justice ministry and home ministry had directed all state governments to constitute fast-track courts to try cases of crimes against women in the wake of the Delhi gang rape in December last year.

“We also discussed the matter at an all-party meeting here and a consensus emerged that fast-track courts should be formed to speedily try complaints of crimes against women,” Chakraborty said.

Replying to a query on the incidents of crimes against women raised by former leader of the Opposition Ratanlal Nath, the minister said 30 brides had been murdered over dowry disputes and marital conflicts till August 31 this year.

“During the same period, 116 women and girls were raped, 447 women were tortured and 179 women were molested,” the minister said in his reply.

But the data on prosecution brought out the seriousness of the situation. In case of rape, 10 accused persons were convicted and 106 acquitted.

In molestation cases, 13 people were convicted while 166 were acquitted. In cases of torture on women, 34 were convicted and 413 released.