Half of CB probes billed ‘pending’

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Bhubaneswar: The state crime branch (CB), despite its tall claim of having the most advanced scientific facilities, has performed miserably, if its report card over past 12 years is any indication. The premier wing, working under the administrative control of the state police, deals with high profile cases.
Cases are either directly referred to it by the local police or the agency takes up investigation of sensitive cases when it is directed by the Home department. Many of its cases were also referred to it by courts. Most of them related to missing or kidnapping.
Its reply in response to an RTI query has revealed the poor track record of the premier investigating agency of the state. Over 50 per cent of the cases referred to it are still under investigation.
The RTI query covered cases handed over to CB from 2007 to 2019. There are 345 sensitive cases referred to the crime branch, out of which 90 per cent (309) came from police stations. During this period, the state home department handed over 36 high profile cases to the CB like the Pipli and Kunduli gang rape cases.
However, the agency has managed to complete investigation in less than half of the cases. The RTI reply reveals that out of 345 cases, investigation into 168 cases has been completed which works out to just 48.69 per cent of the cases while probes of 177 cases (51.30 per cent) have been pending.
Given the miserable conviction rate of the state police, the situation is even much worse as the sleuths have failed to prove involvement of the accused in the cases. The gang rape of the minor girl at Pipli is a crying example of the sloppy probe by the probe agency. The sleuths arrested 534 accused involved in all these cases while 45 are still at large.
Source in the CB told Orissa POST, there are several reasons for the rise in the number of cases pending. Some cases were referred to us as per orders of courts. Most of them are related to kidnapping where cases remain pending till the victims are rescued. Many of the complicated cases have national and international links.