Rapes rise, but more cases cracked
Police commissioner B.K. Gupta speaks at the annual press conference in New Delhi on Friday. — G.N. JHA
More women were raped and molested in 2011 than 2010 and more people became target of murder attempts and dacoities in the city compared to the previous year. There was an increase in cases of kidnapping for ransom and attempted murders with a substantial rise in heinous and IPC crime in the city.
The overall picture of crime in the capital presented by the Delhi police in its annual press conference on Friday doesn’t look promising. The large number of rape cases, which got the city labelled as “rape capital”, increased from 507 in 2010 to 568 in 2011, cases of attempted murders saw a phenomenal rise going up from 311 to 386 in the period. Incidents of molestation of women too rose from 601 in 2010 to 653 over the year.
“We are not bothered about figures. What is of more concern to us is the perception among the people,” Delhi police commissioner, B.K. Gupta told reporters. However, perhaps Mr Gupta was not aware that a recent study conducted by Navteq, a global provider of navigation enabled maps, and TNS Market Research claimed that 87 per cent women regarded Delhi as most unsafe city followed by Mumbai which was touted as the safest city by 74 per cent women interviewed in the survey.
The law and order picture appears bleak as cases of dacoity and kidnapping for ransom climbed from 32 and 18 1n 2010 to 33 and 25 in 2011, respectively. The total number of IPC cases registered in Delhi in 2010 was 51,292 and has gone up to 53,353. The heinous crime cases increased from 2,085 to 2,167. Cases of corruption in the force also rose with 162 officers removed from service and more than 800 dealt major punishment last year.
However, there is something to cheer about. The Delhi police cracked more number of cases last year with a jump of eight per cent in solved IPC cases. There was a decrease in robberies (-11.67%), murders (-3.89%) and snatching (-11.67%) cases. At the same time, the number of robbers/dacoits arrested increased from 1,417 in 2010 to 1,469 in 2011. Auto thefts, which accounted for 27 per cent crime in the city, came down from 14,966 cases in 2010 to 14,668 last year. This despite the burgeoning vehicular traffic in the city where more than a thousand vehicles are added to roads on a daily basis. More cases of auto thefts were solved by the police last year.
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