Karnataka is set to launch 33 dedicated police stations to handle cases under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar on Monday.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced setting up the police stations during the 2023-24 budget speech. There will be one such police station in every district and two in Bengaluru. The special police stations will be headed by deputy superintendents of police or assistant commissioners of police and cost the state exchequer Rs 73 crore per year.
Under the new system, atrocity complaints will first be lodged at the local police station and then transferred to the special units. The Additional Director General of Police (Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement) will assign an investigating officer, who will take over the case from the Sub-Divisional Police Officer and submit findings to the court.
The launch of the special police stations comes in the wake of a dip in conviction rates under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act – from 2.16 per cent in 2021 to a dismal 0.07 per cent in 2024. In a recent meeting of the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee, CM Siddaramaiah even expressed his dissatisfaction over the poor conviction rates.
“The conviction rate hasn’t crossed 3 per cent in decades. Delayed investigations – especially in cases of murder and rape – hamper justice and allow destruction of evidence. Victims already bear the burden of proof, and slow probes only add to their trauma,” Siddaramaiah had said. He directed officials to push the conviction rate above 10 per cent and hold quarterly reviews with public prosecutors and police officers.
According to data from the Social Welfare Department, 28 per cent of atrocity cases have seen counter-complaints. Since 2022, over 7,600 cases have been registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Karnataka, but only 68 have resulted in convictions.
Karnataka is the sixth state – after Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh – to establish dedicated police stations for atrocity cases.
