With police personnel busy controlling the protests and the agitators during the ongoing bandhs and agitations for a united State for the past one and a half months, criminals have turned active creating panic among the residents in the city.
More than 15 house burglaries, snatchings and a couple of murders and other cases were reported in the city in the last one month. Police admitted that detections had come down and the crime rate had gone up in the past few days, as the police were engaged in mob-controlling duties at demonstration spots and Ganesh festivities.
Police are still groping in the dark on the brutal murder of retired engineer G. Radhakrishna Murthy (75), which occurred at LIC Colony under Machavaram police station limits last month. The investigating officers are clueless over Rs.7 lakh cash snatched outside HDFC Bank, which occurred on September 4. A few other major cases also remain unsolved in the city.
Criminals released
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) M. Ravi Prakash said that some notorious gangs and hardcore criminals, who were released from Rajahmundry, Cherlapalli and Tamil Nadu jails were on prowl in Krishna District and the neighbouring districts, which could be one of the reason for increased crime rate.
“The ongoing agitation was hampering investigation in many cases as the police officers are deployed to maintain law and order. The City Police made some major detection despite shortage of staff and we will crack some more cases soon”, said Mr. Ravi Prakash at a press conference.
Additional staff
The DCP said that police had ‘pucca’ information on chain snatching, attention diversion, burglars, extortion and other criminal gangs and some were rounded up. The gangs were striking mostly in the areas under Krishnalanka, Patamata, Machavaram and Governorpet police station limits.
“We are planning to allot additional staff to the police stations where the crime rate was high and restore ‘naka bandi’ at major junctions. Instructions have been given to the Station House Officers to keep a vigil on the movements of criminals who released from jails”, said the DCP.
