A total of 39 persons were arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012 in Nagaland in 2021. The number of persons arrested under POCSO Act in 2020 and 2019 was 23 and 14 respectively, indicating an increase in the number of arrests made.
Registrations of cases under the POCSO Act 2012 also saw a three-fold rise during 2020 to 2021 in Nagaland. According to data provided by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, citing data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), the number of cases registered under the POCSO Act 2012 in Nagaland increased from 12 in 2019 to 18 in 2020 and to 31 in 2021.
In 2021, there were 30 Cases of Charge-sheeted (CCS) out of 31 registrations.
The Act also saw an increase in the number of People Charged Sheeted (PCS), which increased from 13 in 2019 to 17 in 2020 to 36 in 2021.
However, the data also indicated that the conviction rate was low even though almost all of the cases were sent to trials. 30 of the 31 cases registered in 2021 were sent to trial but only 4 were convicted. All 12 registered cases in 2019 were sent for trial but only 1 was convicted while 15 of the 18 registered cases in 2020 were sent to trial of which 6 were convicted.
As a result, the number of cases pending trial at the end of the year was high for each of the three years, at 61, 69, and 94 in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively.
