AGARTALA, August 18 (TIWN): Being constituted by Tripura High Court, the two fast track courts in Tripura for speedy disposal of cases related to crime against women got to dispose as many as 88 cases, the state legislative assembly was informed this month.

The fast court to check the crimes against women in the state was set up on October 1, 2013. The state Law Minister Tapan Chakroborty recently this month informed the assembly that during the three consecutive years since the fast court was set up it received at least 88 cases disposed.

On being asked by the opposition MLA Minister informed that amongst the 88 cases, the accused persons of as many as 81 cases were released by the court whereas the accused involved with the rest 7 cases were punished.

According to the direction of the HC the West Tripura Additional District and Session Judge Court and the first class judicial magistrate court in Agartala are functioning as two separate fast track courts and all pending cases of crimes against women are being transferred to these two courts.

Minister said the fast track courts were set up by the HC following request from the state government.

He said the central government had instructed all the state governments to constitute fast track courts to deal with crime against women following the rape incident in Delhi on December 16, 2012.

However, with incidents of crimes against women registering a sharp increase in recent years, Tripura has decided to increase the number of women police personnel to one-third of its total strength in the next couple of years.

Besides, with a substantial 18 percent reduction in overall crime, including crime against women during the 2014-15 Financial Year altogether 5,347 crimes of different nature have been registered with police as against 6,537 crimes during the like period of the preceding fiscal, said a police record.

During the period under review, 1,516 crimes against women, including rape, molestation and dowry-related harassment, were reported as against 1,785 such crimes during the same period of the previous year.

But according to the Crimes in India 2013 report published by National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB), Tripura had registered 1628 cases of various crimes against women during 2013. Of these cases of cruelty by husbands and other relatives were the highest at 827, followed by 233 cases of rape, 124 cases of kidnapping and abduction and 29 cases of dowry-related deaths.

However, in 2012-13, the dowry deaths hiked at 796 and the very next fiscal year (2013-14), the figure touched 880.

Altogether 840 cases related to crime against women were registered by January 2015 across the state. Among the total women violence cases, 544 cases in connection to dowry death were lodged at different police stations.