Rape cases have increased from 386 in 2004 to 733 in 2011, with most years showing a higher count than the previous one. For cases of crime against Dalits, the state had a 13 per cent conviction rate in 2011.

Over two dozen Dalit girls and women have been raped over the last one month, going by the State Crime Records Bureau’s records for cases filed. All of these have involved charges under the IPC for rape, with the SC/ST Act invoked in certain cases.

On Saturday, a 16-year-old victim of gangrape immolated herself in Jind. In the same district, a woman of the Khati backward caste had been raped by three men at gunpoint in front of her children. In Hisar, a 16-year-old Dalit girl was gangraped by eight men while four others videographed them and circulated the MMS clip, after which her father committed suicide. In the last of these rapes, cases were filed not only for gangrape but also under the SC/ST Act.

The NCRB’s finding of a 13-per-cent conviction rate is based on a total 830 cases, out of which 568 remained pending till January 1, 2012. Of the 262 cases that were disposed of, only 34 culminated in a conviction, with the accused in the remaining 228 cases acquitted with the police failing to come up with evidence.

The alarming frequency at which girls have been raped of late has brought the government under fire from the Opposition. “Law and order does not exist in the state anymore. While the government is busy committing scams, criminals are flourishing and targeting young girls and women,” said Ajay Singh Chautala of the INLD

The police have said the recent trend does not necessarily reflect an increase in the crime rate, while the chief minister has said there is no caste angle to the rapes. “The crime rate has not increased,” DGP Ranjiv Singh Dalal had said after one of the recent gangrapes. “Those involved will not be spared.”

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the increase in figures is because of prompt registration of cases. “Anybody who commits a crime against a member of any community is a criminal. There is no caste angle to the crimes that have happened recently,” he said.

The records make it clear that the police have been prompt in slapping cases under the SC/ST Act but its conviction rate of 13 per cent has not been even half the national average, 31.9 per cent in the states and 31.8 per cent in the UTs. States with a high conviction rate include Sikkim with 87.5 per cent, Uttarakhand with 61.9 and UP with 59.