The criminals in the Capital are becoming more and more trigger-happy. Despite a marginal fall in heinous crime cases reported in 2009, the use of firearms in such cases has gone up.
The total number of cases in which the criminals used firearms in commission of heinous crimes has increased to 355 last year compared with 330 in 2008. The use of firearms in heinous crime per lakh of population has also gone up to 2.09 last year vis-à-vis 1.91 in 2008.
In robbery cases, the use of firearms has increased to 122 in 2009 compared with only 117 cases the previous year. In 2009, the criminals used firearms in a total of 140 cases of robbery and dacoity put together compared with just 124 the previous year.
ADVERTISEMENT
Interestingly, the use of fire arms in commission of murder has decreased in 2009 by 21 per cent compared with the previous year.
“In 2009, the number of cases of murder in which firearms were used reduced to 56 compared with 71 last year. In 44 per cent murder cases the criminals used sharp-edged weapons, in 15 per cent cases blunt objects were used a weapon and in another 15 per cent cases victims were strangulated to death. In five per cent cases, victims were set on fire and were poisoned to death in another two per cent cases. In only 11 per cent of cases, did the accused use a firearm,” said a senior police officer.
Explaining the decrease in use of firearms in murder cases, a police officer said: “Most of the murders were committed due to sudden provocation or in a fit of rage. Only 16 per cent murders were committed with an intention to commit a crime.”
ADVERTISEMENT
A part of its drive to check growing use of fire-arms in commission of crime, the Crime Branch of the Delhi police seized 101 weapons and 337 cartridges from 23 gangs in 2009. A major racket in smuggling of illegal weapons was smashed with the arrest of Manish Kumar of Bihar.