In a positive development, the crime graph in Prakasam district went down by 11.1 per cent to 4,003 incidents last year when compared to the previous year.
The district saw a 21.93 per cent decline in the number of grave offences, with registration of 235 incidents in 2014 as against 301 in the previous year, Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikanth said.
While murders has declined by seven to 68 cases, the number of murder for gain fell further to 5 in 2014 from nine in 2013, the SP explained. The number of dacoity cases was only six this year as against seven in the previous year. But the worrisome aspect was that people had lost their hard earned money to white-collar offenders. Though the number of cheating cases per se had declined to 194 in 2014 from 294 in the previous year, the amount lost was more than Rs. 36 crore this year, he explained.
Police had to concentrate on recovery in property offences as recovery of valuables declined by 47.9 per cent to Rs. 1.74 crore in 2014 as against recovery of Rs. 6.45 crore (69.92 per cent) in 2013. Though crime against women and children came down to 806 in 2014 as against 977 in 2013, the number of rape cases showed a 25 per cent increase to 46 this year. The SP attributed this to inclusion in this category, cases of sexual assault of women by men with a false promise to marry them.
However, crime against SCs and STs showed a 13.66 per cent fall to 139 in 2014. But cases under SC/ST(POA) Act increased by a case to 18 in 2014.
Simple hurt cases accounted for a maximum of 1387. Other crimes during the year included non-fatal road accidents(692), fatal road accidents(470), theft cases(563), rioting(118), house-breaking(HB) incidents by night( 179) and HB incidents by day(45).
A fly-by-night firm had created an attractive website and collected Rs. 11,500 each from 85 persons promising to repay Rs. 6,000 per month for a year, according to a report compiled by the District Crime Records Bureau(DCRB).
Another firm has targeted members of a particular faith by collected just Rs. 1,050 from each person, promising to return Rs. 5,400 by paying Rs. 270 each in the first two months and Rs. 540 each for the subsequent nine months.
Yet another firm had duped 40 persons by collecting Rs. 1,500 from each, with the promise of repaying Rs. 4,000 per month for 22 months.
