Conviction rate and police action even in heinous crimes raise questions, matter comes up in assembly
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, September 23, 2025
The nature and quality of police investigation even into heinous crimes like child or minor girl rape has now become a matter of deep concern. This sensitive issue sparked a controversy among opposition parties in the context of a reply given by the home department to an ‘unstarred’ question-meant only for written reply in the house without any supplementary from the mover of the query.
Replying in writing to a query from the CPI (M) MLA Sudip Sarkar, the chief minister Dr Manik Saha who also holds the home portfolio said that in the last three years-that is, 2023-2024,2024-2025 and 2025-2026 (up to July this year) there had been 256 cases of rapes of girl childs or minors had been registered with the police stations across the state. Altogether 326 accused persons in these cases were arrested in connection with these cases but only 15 accused persons have been convicted in these cases. Even though the there was no scope to raise the issue afresh in the house in the form of supplementaries the opposition MLAs sharply slammed the role of police in properly investigating and bringing to book culprits even in these heinous cases.
Apart from this, the issue of child or minor girl marriage which is quite rampant in rural areas of Tripura also came up in the assembly today in the form of an unstarred question . The question was raised by the CPI (M) MLA from Jubaraj Nagar, Shailendra Nath. In reply the home minister said in writing that in the year 2022-2023 only 5 minor marriage cases had been registered with police stations while the numbers of such illegal marriages registered with police stations were 3 in the year 2023-2024 and 14 in the year 2024-2025. It means that over the past three years only 22 such cases have been registered with police even though child or minor marriage is almost a daily phenomenon in rural areas of Tripura. In the reply the home department said that it is a social challenge and it has to be fought collectively by ensuring education and care for the girl childs. The MLA Shailendra Nath later expressed concern over the issue and said that neither the state government nor the police is sensitive to the issue .
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