May 23, 2016
The conviction rate of the Mumbai range of the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) this year hit an all-time low of zero percent with the accused in a total of 29 bribery cases, which completed trials till April, being acquitted.
Incidentally, the number of courts trying the ACB cases in Maharashtra had almost doubled in 2015 and the ACB had thought that this would help in speeding the trials of the long-pending cases and thereby improve the conviction rate. However, the measure doesn’t seem to have worked in case of the Mumbai ACB range.
In 2014, around 39 bribery cases completed trial in the Mumbai ACB range, in which, the conviction came in 12 cases and the conviction rate stood at 31%. Though in 2015, about 69 cases completed trials in the Mumbai ACB range and the conviction came only in five cases with the conviction rate dropping to a mere 7%.