Shimla, March 2 (PTI) More than 20 per cent of the total inmates lodged in 15 prisons in Himachal Pradesh have been booked for crimes against women, police officials said on Thursday.

As many as 598 inmates, including 333 undertrials and 265 convicts, lodged in the jails have been arrested on charges of rape and other crimes against women, they said.

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The total capacity of the 15 jails in the state is 2,560 and presently 2,901 inmates are lodged in them, the officials said.

Robust trial management system ensuring deposition by the witness and police to reduce pendency of cases of crime against women has led to expeditious trials in courts and improved convictions, and as a result the number of such criminals has increased in jails, said DGP Sanjay Kundu.

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A total of 543 cases of rape and POCSO Act were registered in the state in 2022 (as compared to 612 in 2021), out of which 170 has been decided by various courts and in 40 per cent cases the accused have been convicted.

Himachal is the first state to start register Number 26 for sexual offenders and 4,300 sexual offenders have been identified so far out of which 55 are repeat offenders. The crime against women declined from 1,700 in 2021 to 1,606 in 2022.

The police department has established Women Help Desk number 1091 for redressal of grievances and women police stations have been made functional in all districts of the state except Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts.

Moreover, a new scheme known as "Veerangna on Wheels" has been started throughout the state for combating crime against women besides installation of CCTV, the officials added.

As per an analysis of official data, relatives were involved in 48.5 per cent of rape cases from January 2020 till October 2022, out of which fathers/step fathers were accused in 10 per cent, cousin in 6 per cent, grandfather in 1.4 per cent, uncle in 6.6 per cent and other relatives in 75.7 per cent cases.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)