Stern action and preventive measures taken by the police have brought down crime rate in Kanniyakumari district, said Superintendent of Police G. Dharmarajan here on Saturday.
Speaking to The Hindu, he said compared to the last two years, those detained under Goondas Act had increased to 55, which also brought down murder cases — only 13 murders took place during the current year compared to 37 murders during the last year and 35 during 2014.
The number of persons detained under Goondas Act during 2014 was 34 and it rose to 39 last year. The crime rate also came down drastically and the detection rate went up considerably, he added.
House-breaking incidents
However, residents of Rahmath Garden in Ward 13 of Nagercoil Municipality were under the grip of fear owing to a series of house-breaking incidents in the recent past, said S. M. Basheer, president, Rahmath Garden Welfare Trust.
Mr. Basheer said that a person caught by the public and was handed over to the police on the night of August 13 when the culprit and one of his associates scaled the compound wall of a house in Rahmath Garden.
But he was let off the very next day by the Kottar police.
Denying it, Mr. Dharmarajan said the man handed over to the police was under the influence of liquor and he was let off after a preliminary inquiry which revealed that he did not have criminal antecedents.
The police would soon nab a gang which had the habit of stealing cooking gas cylinders and electronic gadgets in locked houses, he said. As many as 151 out of 210 theft cases were detected during the current year. The number of thefts reported during last year was 464 of which 353 were detected. In 2014, 420 cases out of 542 cases were detected, Mr. Dharmarajan said.
As many as 1,864 pending non-bailable warrants out of the total 1,969 were executed during the current year, he said.
With a view to preventing road accidents, a separate team of officials was involved in identifying black spots.
Eleven house-breaking cases were pending against a gang from ‘kurava’ community in various police stations in Kanniyakumari district.
A special team investigating the case recovered 52 sovereigns from them.
Except for two, all the accused were remanded in judicial custody, he added.
