Insurgency adversely impacts criminal justice system in NE region: Rajnath Singh

Addressing the meeting of Chief Ministers of eight NE States held in Guwahati, the Union Minister said that, the people of the region have suffered the trauma of insurgency for long and now they must reap the dividend of peace.

"Insurgency has badly impacted the criminal justice system in the region. There has been marked increase in low visibility yet high impact violent crimes like kidnapping for ransom and extortions in Assam and Meghalaya," Rajnath Singh said.

"It has severely undermined common man's access to justice. In some states of NE region ratio of prosecution of criminals in cases of serious crimes is disturbingly low as low as 5 percent as against all India figure of over 85 percent, " the Union Home Minister said.

He asked to the state police to pay greater attention to registration and investigation of crimes and pursue the cases diligently in the courts for punishing the criminals who commit heinous crimes in the region.

The Union Home Minister had constituted a Special Investigation Cell led by RN Ravi, Joint Intelligence Commissioner to tackle the cases of extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

Worried about the illegal firearms in NE region, Singh said that, weapons are smuggled from across the border and sold in the region and even beyond.

"Dimapur has become a hub of smuggled weapons. Existence of illegal weapons will continue encouraging crimes and vitiating the security eco-system of the region, " Singh said.

The Union Home Minister urged to the Chief Ministers to launch sustained drives against illegal weapons and make the region free of such arms.

Singh emphasized to have zero tolerance policy on insurgency.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)