Only 19% of registered corruption cases end in conviction, shows study

Among every 100 corruption cases registered by investigation agencies only about 19 ended in conviction of accused, analysis of data for last 15 years by a voluntary group shows.

The findings of the data crunching done by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative from 2001-15 shows Punjab has the best conviction rates with 36.58% of registered cases ending in conviction.

The national average of conviction in graft cases which reach trial stage improves significantly with about 35% of corruption cases reaching court's door resulting in punishment for the accused, the analysis shows.

It is not necessary that investigation agencies are able to file charge sheets in every case registered by them as many are closed because evidence could not be collected or there are no evidence to back the allegations of an FIR.

Kerala fares on top in the category of corruption cases which reached trial stage with 62% ending in conviction during the years 2001-15, while in terms of FIRs registered by it, conviction could be attained in 24.35% cases, the study based on NCRB data shows.

Among the total people charged for corruption by various investigative agencies, only 31% received punishment from the court during last 15 years while 69% (about 29,591) were acquitted by the courts, it said.

"In states like Goa, Manipur and Tripura the acquittals were 100%. All 30 accused were acquitted by courts in these states," it said. Jammu and Kashmir saw acquittal of 90% of accused.

Nagaland courts gave punishment to 90% of the accused charged by investigative agencies closely followed by Assam at 70%.

"CHRI has taken the initiative of analysing datasets relating to the offence of corruption posted on the Open Data Portal along with updates from the latest crime in India reports published by NCRB," a statement from CHRI said.