MP Govt. Launches ‘Reward System’ To Motivate Public Prosecutors For Higher Conviction

Madhya Pradesh is known as the rape capital of India with the least conviction rate. To change this image and fasten the conviction rate, the state government has launched a ‘reward system’ to motivate public prosecutors for ensuring speedy trials and quick convictions.

As per the reward system, a public prosecutor will get - 1,000 points for a death penalty, 500 for a life imprisonment, and 100-200 points for maximum punishment in lower courts. The prosecutors who collect more than 2,000 points will be awarded as ‘best prosecutor of the month’ and ‘pride of prosecution’.

Last year, the state government led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had introduced the 'e-Prosecution MP' app, which can be downloaded from Google play store. The app will track the day-to-day activities of 1,000 government prosecutors across the state.

The state government’s reward plan seems to be working as 10 accused were awarded death sentence in the last six months for involvement in rape, murder and other cases by the different courts of the state. However, the High Court has stamped the death penalty to only one accused so far.

Speaking about the recent convictions, director of public prosecution of Madhya Pradesh, Rajendra Kumar gave the credit to the government’s fast track move. He said, “The ‘e-Prosecution MP’ app which will track the day-to-day activities of 1,000 government prosecutors across the state and the ‘reward system’ is contributing to this change and motivating public prosecutors for ensuring speedy trials and quick convictions.”

He further said that earlier, the stock reply given on behalf of a prosecutor was ‘court mein hain’, but no one had any idea about what exactly they did there. But after the introduction of the system, there is a competition among the public prosecutors to receive the maximum points.

“Now that the prosecutors are required to keep a daily account of their activities, the conviction rate has improved. With the reward system in place, prosecutors now go the extra mile to log more points. Though there’s no monetary award yet, these achievements will be recorded in their annual confidential report,” he said.

Moreover, on August 3, 2018, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had felicitated several prosecutors for ensuring death sentences to rapists of minor girls.

The state government’s initiative got a major boost when Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech from the Red Fort on August 15, 2018, mentioned a case in a BJP ruled state where a man was awarded the death penalty after five days of trial in Katni. The man - Rajkumar Kol (34), an auto rickshaw driver was awarded the death penalty on July 27, 2018, for raping a minor girl on July 4. The accused was arrested within 72 hours of the crime on July 7 and a charge sheet was filed on July 18.

In his speech, PM Modi had said, “Rapists were sentenced to death after just five days of trial. As more such news gets published, the more such people with demonic mentality will get scared. We have to publicise such news. People should know that rapists are being sent to the gallows.”

Some cases -

August 6: A Chattarpur court sentenced Touheed Shaukat, 19, to death for raping a two-and-a-half year old girl on April 24. He was arrested from the spot and a chargesheet was filed on June 11.

July 27: Rajkumar Kol, 34, was sentenced to death for raping a minor student in Katni Town on July 4. He was arrested on July 7 and the chargesheet was filed on July 18.

August 16: Burhanpur court handed death sentence to Badu alias Prakash Lahase, 34, for raping and killing women on May 17. The chargesheet was filed on July 7.

July 27: Jitendra Kushwaha, 25, was sentenced to death by Gwalior court for raping and killing a six-year old on the night between June 20-21.