In Haryana, 45% rape cases false: SCRB report

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, September 10

At least 45 per cent cases of rape, 79.8 per cent of kidnapping and abduction, 50.6 per cent of atrocities against SCs/STs and 26.8 per cent of domestic violence turned out to be false in Haryana in 2021, states a report of the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB).

According to it, the number of such cases has gone up. The cases which are closed after finding the allegations false fall in this category.

In 2021, the police disposed of 1,674 rape cases. Of these, 754 or 45 per cent were declared false. These included 84 FIRs pertaining to gang-rapes and 238 to “repeated rapes of same complainant”. In 2020, 42.7 per cent of such cases were declared false.

The trial was completed in 443 rape cases in 2021 across all district courts in the state, but just 72 (16.3 per cent) ended in conviction. The conviction rate in gang rape cases was 12.5%. “People are misusing law to settle scores,” said Abhishek Singh Rana, a Panchkula-based advocate. However, the percentage of false cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was low at 13.9%. In cases of kidnapping of women, of 2,921 cases disposed of by the police, 2,330 were found false (79.8%). In 2020, the percentage of false cases under this category was 76.2%.

Similarly, the conviction rate in kidnapping/abduction cases in 2021 was just 16.5%. PK Agrawal, Haryana DGP, said, “We have a policy of registering all complaints. During investigation, many cases are found false and motivated. We have decided to initiate action under Section 182 of IPC in such cases.”