Senior officials of the city police are miffed by the interpretation of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics to mark Kochi as topping the list of crimes recorded during 2010.
Talking to The Hindu , City Police Commissioner M.R. Ajith Kumar pointed out that this analysis of statistics could be misleading. “The reported increase was in minor crimes and not in crimes against person and property. The increase in minor crimes shows efficiency in policing,” he said.
The unprecedented increase in the number of cases follows the steps taken by the police to register cases suo motu under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code for rash and negligent driving after the Kerala High Court issued an order that the police cannot initiate cases suo motu under Sections 184 and 185 of the IPC for drunk driving.
“It may be noted that the total number of cases reported in the city in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 was 5,659, 6,608, 7,956, and 8,755 as against 25,716 in 2010,” Mr. Ajith Kumar said.
Citing the same statistics that the NCRB had brought out as a document titled Crime in India 2010, he said the figures put Kochi “at a very low position of 56”.
The document prepared by the NCRB put Kochi, Ernakulam Rural, Thrissur, and Palakkad among the 23 police districts reporting more than 10,000 crimes last year. Citing statistics on cases registered, the document cited that Kochi city recorded a significant increase of 193.7 per cent in IPC crimes during the year when compared with 2009. According to the NCRB, the city reported the highest crime rate of 1,897.8 as compared to 424.1 for the entire State.
Delhi with 45,995 registered cases, which includes 33,829 ‘main' IPC offences and 12,165 minor offences, tops the list followed by Mumbai with 33,932 cases, 26,839 and 7,093, and Bangalore with 32,188 cases, 21,855 and 10,333. In comparison, Kochi has only 25,715 registered cases, with 1,488 main IPC offences and 24,227 minor offences.
“In fact, Kochi is behind Thiruvananthapuram (2,964) and Kozhikode (1,963) with 1,488 cases registered under main IPC offences,” he said.
This category included cases registered under Sections 326 (for grave crimes), 302 (for culpable homicide), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 498 A (harassment of women), 394 (robbery), and 390 (dacoity).
“It will be foolish to think that the crime in Kochi city has grown in 2010 compared to 2009. In reality, it has come down by 100 per cent compared to 2009,” he said.
Citing the crime statistics provided by the NCRB, he added that major crimes recorded in the city actually came down from 4,103 in 2007 to 3,405 (in 2008) and 2,990 (in 2009) and to 1,488 in 2010.
