Cold case: Conviction rate dismal as police scamper for proof

According to the police record last year, 2,604 people were killed across the K-P province.

PESHAWAR:

Investigating a murder or robbery in the provincial capital is pretty standard procedure – nothing exciting like a scene from The Wire or CSI: Miami.

The crime scene is cordoned off, men from the investigation force photograph and document what happened and then the investigating officer proceeds with the case.

Once they catch the suspects, it’s time to present them and the evidence in court. Chances are, however, that the suspect will be acquitted by the court. The reason behind this is a lack of modern investigation techniques which leads to incomplete evidence.

According to the police record last year, 2,604 people were killed across the province and only 256 people were convicted by the court – this is just 9.83%. In the same year, there were about 2,420 attempted murders out of which 164 suspects were convicted. The total number of FIRs registered for robberies in 2013 was 203 – only 16 of the accused were convicted.

Peshawar topped the list with respect to cases of kidnapping for ransom in the province. In the last year alone, more than 140 people were kidnapped for ransom and 90 FIRs were registered, according to police records and only 19 accused were sentenced.



In other abduction cases where girls are kidnapped and forced into marriage, family or business disputes – 283 cases were registered and only 14 of the accused were handed a penalty.

In cases of rape, last year, only 71 were registered and seven of the accused were convicted. In three of the reported gang rape cases, there were no convictions.

Out of the 147 cases registered under the Explosive Substance Act, 20 people were convicted.

While talking to The Express Tribune, a police official said there were many flaws in Pakistan’s police investigation procedure as they did not have trained people or those with knowledge of modern investigation techniques.

“Police performance is judged by their ability to investigate murder, robberies and car theft cases successfully. We are way behind in this,” he said. “If we take into consideration how important it is for policemen to learn how to investigate using these modern techniques, things will get better.” He added that one of the main problems was funds.

The official explained that when an officer arrests a man in a case, according to rules and regulations, he should be paid a small sum to provide the accused with food, transport, etc. This, however, is not done and as a result, the officer has to ask the accused to pay for himself. He added that lack of modern technology wasn’t the only thing holding them back.

“It is easy to blame the investigating officer but no one is trying to understand our problems,” said an investigation officer. “We are poor people and cannot pay the expenses of arresting a man, keeping him at the station for interrogation and then presenting him before court. This process also includes taking a photograph of the accused and making photocopies of documents needed. Since pre-Partition, an investigation officer was paid a sum of money called an investigation expense – this helped the officer go on field, visit the victims, carry out raids. These days, for murder cases, an investigation officer gets around Rs5,000.

He added that sometime towards the end of the year an approved fund for investigation expenses is distributed equally among the officers but this was unfair as those at the Mattani and Badhaber stations got more terrorism, murder and attempted murder cases as compared to Shah Qabool.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2014.