On Friday, Goa woke up to a tragic incident, the dead body of a 5-year-old girl was found in suspicious conditions behind an under-construction site at Vaddem, Vasco in the wee hours.
According to the information available, the body of the girl child was found by the parents after they realised that the girl had gone missing and they immediately shifted the body to the Chicalim Sub District Hospital where she was declared dead
While the mother of the child alleged that her 5-year-old daughter could have been raped and murdered, the Vasco police have begun the investigation into the sensitive incident.
South Goa SP Sunita Sawant said that the workers of the under-construction site-building have been called for an investigation.
Primarily, the police said, it was observed that the girl had froth coming out of the nose and we are carrying out an investigation.
“We have realised that many migrants are working on the under-construction site and we have also called them for investigation. Our IGP Ombir Singh had personally come to the Vasco police station and we are investigating the incident from all angles,” said DySP Sunita Sawant.
This incident has raised eyebrows as to how the anti-social elements, the thieves, and rapist have a field day even when the Goa Police claims of 24×7 patrolling across the State.
We know for sure that Goa Police ranks up somewhere when we talk of crime detection rate but that does not deter the anti-social elements, in fact the crime seems to be increasing.
Goa witnessed a fluctuation in IPC cases over the past three years, with an unexpected surge recorded in 2022, according to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In 2020, the state registered 3,393 cases, which declined to 2,099 in 2021, only to see a subsequent increase to 2,711 in 2022.
The rate of cognizable crimes was 172.8, with a charge-sheeting rate of 75.9%.
Crimes ranged from kidnapping, cheating, rape, forgery, to overstaying and drug-related offences.
The conviction rate in criminal cases for 2022 was 25.7%, with 365 cases resulting in convictions, 744 in acquittals, and a pendency percentage of 90.3, the lowest in the country.
Crimes against women showed a rise, with 268 IPC offences reported in 2022. Sexual crimes included 73 rape cases, 90 cases of outraging modesty, 30 cases of insult to modesty, and 60 cases of kidnapping and abduction. The overall crimes against women increased from 219 in 2020 to 273 in 2022.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant recently said in the assembly is 85 per cent which is amongst the highest in the country.
He also claimed that crimes in Goa have decreased by 28.8% and that cases of crimes against women have also dropped.
Now while the crime detection rate is high, why has that not discouraged anti-social elements?
Places like Vasco, Dabolim, Mapusa, Thivim, Margao etc, which are closer to the railway stations seem to be more vulnerable to thefts and robberies as the thieves immediately leave the state after committing the crime by trains.
But what of bigger crimes like the rapes and murders even as most of these cases are cracked by the police within hours.
This is simply because of the low conviction rate, which is amongst the lowest in the country at 25 per cent.
Public Prosecutors attribute the State’s low conviction to a lack of in-depth and scientific investigation. In addition to this, the pendency of cases waiting for trial is well above 90 per cent.
A break-up of the nature of cases and the statistics reveals a disturbing trend as far as pendency and conviction are concerned. The conviction rate in crimes against women in the State is 21 per cent below the national average of 26.6 per cent. However, the pendency of such cases is 95.3 per cent.
With regards to crimes against children, the conviction rate of cases in Goa is 13.8 per cent, which is worrisome as it is 19.8 per cent below the national average. The pendency of cases has peaked at 96.1 per cent.
SURAJ BNANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
