Policy Watch: Rajasthan's approach to organised crime
It becomes the 4th state to introduce a law against organised crime.
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In the past couple of years, crime has been rising in Rajasthan, increasing by 31% in 2019 from 2018 and by 14% in 2021 from 2020.
Rajasthan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Shanti Dhariwal has cited studies that display a rising trend of organised crime in criminal acts of murder, dacoit, robbery, kidnapping and extortion.
Read on for more about this.
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Policy Watch: Rajasthan’s Organised Crime Approach
In the past couple of years, crime has been rising in Rajasthan, increasing by 31% in 2019 from 2018 and by 14% in 2021 from 2020.
Rajasthan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Shanti Dhariwal has cited studies that display a rising trend of organised crime in criminal acts of murder, dacoit, robbery, kidnapping and extortion.
Alongside rising trends of organised crime, there has been public outrage this year against gang members opening fire in popular nightclubs and forcibly marrying kidnapping victims.
BJP national spokesperson Rajyavardhan Rathore responded by describing Rajasthan’s Congress-led government as ‘’jungle raj’’. Increasing crime rates under the Congress government is something the BJP has been vocal about. Chief Minister Gehlot has dismissed these charges, attributing it to increased crime registration under the Congress government that came into power in 2018 because of more FIRs.
Rajasthan’s Chief Minister, has also increased policing of organised crime. Indeed in March 2023 the Rajasthan Police arrested more than 20,000 offenders in a state-wide campaign against gang members under his direction. Comparatively, the crime rate of March 2023 is 9% lower than that of March 2022. Taking this further, in May 2023 the Rajasthan police were given more power in being able to now announce rewards for fugitives of up to Rs 500,000 from the initial value of just Rs 100,000.
The government has decided to further toughen their approach in tackling this with a formalised legal approach. In mid-July 2023, the Rajasthan Control of Organized Crime Bill was passed. Organised crime describes any serious criminal activity that is coordinated collectively by a group of people regularly working together.
By passing this law, Rajasthan becomes the fourth state in the country to have laws against organised crime. Other states include Maharashatra (1999), Karnataka (2000) and Gujarat (2015). Maharashtra’s Control of Organised Crime Act has set the standard for organised crime laws, serving as inspiration for Karnataka and Gujarat’s laws that followed. In the earlier stages of drafting this bill, the Rajasthan government did say it would base the law on existing frameworks of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The Rajasthan Control of Organized Crime Bill sets up special courts to ensure that organised crimes undergo speedy trials with special public prosecutors that have at least 10 years of experience. In addition it allows for the confiscation of criminal property and denial of bail or anticipatory bail for those alleged to have committed the crime. The law also makes provisions for life imprisonment, capital punishment for death of a victim and sets the minimum fine in case of a victim’s death at Rs 100,000. These provisions are all present in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999.
Despite working on this bill for a couple of years, it has only come into implementation in the current parliamentary session, which is the last before Rajasthan goes to polls this year. This bill was passed alongside other laws to improve conditions of prisons for prisoners, make provisions for dead bodies, table an amendment that seeks life sentences for examination paper leaks and setting up an authority for State Fairs. The government also agreed to repeal 133 laws considered unnecessary in the current parliamentary session.
Leader of the Opposition, Rajendra Rathore responded to this bill, stating that ‘had the government been serious … they would have brought the bill in the initial years of forming the government.’’ Rather, the opposition sees this bill as a convenient attempt at gathering votes. Furthermore, they specifically opposed the provision to intercept phones in this law arguing that the proximity to elections suggests Congress will use this against opposing voices.
Whether this law serves as a politically savvy move by the Congress government or a real attempt to address crime in Rajasthan remains uncertain and will only be seen much further into the future. Maharashtra’s law still remains in use to address organised crime rates alongside a special programme of reform for criminals with good behaviour. Part of Rajasthan’s success with this policy may be in their ability to fine-tune it to the specificities of their state, something which seems to still remain incomplete.
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