Name: Madhusmita Choudhury
Country: India

Year: 2017
Volume: Volume-4, Issue-1 (January-June)
Page Number: 1-7

Introduction
Atrocity means a wicked or cruel act involving physical violence. [1]Atrocity is “an
expression commonly used to refer to crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled
Tribes (STs) in India”. It “denotes the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane,
whereas the term 'crime' relates to an act punishable by law”. It implies “any offence under
the Indian Penal Code (IPC) committed against SCs by non-SC persons, or against STs by
non-ST persons. Total Crime against Scheduled Castes includes: Murder, Rape, Kidnapping
and Abduction, Dacoit, Robbery, Arson, Hurt, Protection of Civil Rights Act, SC/ST
(Prevention of atrocities) Act and Other Crimes Committed Against Scheduled Castes. [2]
Caste consideration as a motive is not necessary to make such an offence in case of atrocity”.
It signifies “crimes which have ingredients of infliction of suffering in one form or the other
that should be included for reporting”. This is based on the assumption that “where the
victims of crime are members of Scheduled Castes and the offenders do not belong to
Scheduled Castes caste considerations are really the root cause of the crime, even though
caste considerations may not be the vivid and minimum motive for the crime [3]