There is a jump in number of crimes against women, white collar crimes and land grabbing cases in the city during this year, so far, compared to last year. This can be attributed to manpower shortage, growing population and holding of mega events in the city.
There was, however, a decline in the overall cases of reported crime with 6,476 cases in 2017 as against 6,670 in 2016. Preventive measures like securing advance information, augmentation of force in strategic locations, and special drives, use of technology and close coordination between different wings of police enabled us in keeping the law and order situation under control, DCP (South Zone) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy told a media conference here on Wednesday.
A total of 997 cases of crime against women were reported in 2017 as against 931 in 2016 and 817 cases in 2015. These include: two dowry deaths, 11 women murders, 81 cases of rape, 52 cases of kidnap/abduction and 293 cases of outraging the modesty of women. The DCP said counselling was being done at the Police Station, at the Counselling Centre of Andhra University and District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to reach a compromise between couples.
A 40-year-old woman was raped by a drunken man in broad daylight on a footpath along a busy road in the city on October 22. The horrific crime was captured on camera by onlookers, who took a video of the incident on their mobiles, instead of helping the victim.
In another incident, a 20-year old girl P. Roopa, second year BSc student, was burnt alive by a jilted lover at T. Nagarapalem under Bheemunipatnam Police Station limits on August 19, when she rejected his love proposal. The jilted lover P. Hari Santhosh (30) later committed suicide by placing his head on the railway track near Vizianagaram.
The DCP said in 80 percent of cases, the accused were known to the victims and crimes were committed inside homes, making it difficult to prevent them. The number of crimes against children was more or less the same with 117 cases reported in 2017 and 115 in 2016. He said there was a decrease in number of road accidents, fatalities and also traffic violations in the year2017, compared to 2016. The number of accidents has reduced from 1,736 in 2016 to 1,613 in 2017
However,traffic police collected a whopping ₹10.84 crore in 2017 as fines for traffic violations by booking cases against 3,87,384 motoris
