After Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir comes as the second most corrupt state in India and the acquittal rate in graft cases too is also as high as 90 per cent. The story does not end here it continues with not a single high profile conviction. With every representative of people talking of speeding up of development the enormity of the same too would be such that makes conviction difficult. Nobody is to be blamed for such a situation as the government’s unwillingness to go after the mighty in and the go-slow approach of the probing agencies to take graft cases – some of them pending even after decades of “probe” – to reach a conclusion. The national average of conviction in graft cases which reach trial stage improved significantly with about 35 per cent of corruption cases reaching Court’s door resulting in punishment for the accused. According to reports, Kerala fares on top in the category of corruption cases which reached trial stage with 62 per cent ending in conviction during the years 2001-15, while in terms of FIRs registered by it, conviction could be attained in 24.35 per cent cases, the study based on NCRB data shows. Among the total people charged for corruption by various investigative agencies, only 31 per cent received punishment from the Court during last 15 years while 69 per cent (about 29,591) were acquitted by the Courts, it said. In States like Goa, Manipur and Tripura the acquittals were 100 per cent. All 30 accused were acquitted by Courts in these states. Jammu and Kashmir saw acquittal of 90 per cent of accused. Nagaland Courts gave punishment to 90 per cent of the accused charged by investigative agencies closely followed by Assam at 70 per cent. The low percentage of conviction is because of the long cumbersome and outdated investigation which is covered by the lethargic ‘babucarcy’ which needs to be changed to make governance transparent and accountable to a believable level.
