The Madras High Court Bench here on Friday sought the response of the State government to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition alleging considerable increase in crime rate owing to reasons such as insufficiency of police personnel to keep a tab on criminal activities. Justices Nooty. Ramamohana Rao and S.S. Sundar ordered notice to Home Secretary and Director General of Police on the petition filed by activist K.K. Ramesh seeking a direction to the State to curtail increasing criminal activities such as theft, chain snatching, rape, robbery, murder, extortion and kidnapping. During the course of hearing, Mr. Justice Rao told the petitioner, who argued the case on his own without engaging a lawyer, that they did not see any alarming reason for the court to interfere in such issues though reports of even policemen being assaulted by criminals was certainly a matter of concern. Stating that insufficiency of policemen and vacancies in the police department could be a reason for instances of criminal activities, they directed a government counsel to file a detailed counter affidavit.
