Fewer crimes in Navi Mumbai, but women still unsafe at home

Of 169 rape cases registered, accused was an unknown person only in one

The annual report of the crime registered in Navi Mumbai has revealed a dip in the total number of cases as compared to 2018. Meanwhile, cases of cheating, economic offences and crimes against women have increased.

Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar unveiled these statistics at an annual police press conference at CBD Belapur on Thursday. “This year, the focus was on the quality of investigation. Navi Mumbai has one of the best detection teams. We have been able to solve many big cases, including the IED bomb case in Kalamboli, some serious cheating cases and fake call centres which cheated U.S. residents. Taking suo moto action, we also cracked down on two multi-level marketing schemes before anyone was cheated,” Mr. Kumar said. According to him, even with two elections and several rallies, the city remained peaceful in 2019.

A total 6,895 offences were registered in 2019 of which 4,929 were solved. This was a drop of 118 cases from 2018, which saw 7,013 crimes, of which 5,077 were solved.

Crimes against women stood at 10.78%, an increase from the 9% recorded in 2018 with 56 more cases being registered this year. Of these, 169 complaints were of rape, 251 of molestation, 174 were of dowry harassment and eight cases were dowry harassment coupled with abetment of suicide.

“In only one of 169 rape cases was the accused an unknown person. Fifty-seven offences were committed on the promise of marriage, and in a whopping 111 cases, the accused was a friend or a relative,” Mr. Kumar said.

He also revealed that cash gold and other valuables worth ₹28.93 crore were stolen, of which around ₹9.18 crore were recovered. In 2018, the figures for the same were ₹26.57 crore and ₹7.96 crore respectively. “For 2020, we aim to increase the percentage of recovery as for the common man, this matters the most,” Mr. Kumar said.

According to him, drug menace and cyber crimes are social issues and awareness was required to curb the two. “We are conducting regular seminars to curb them. We also have three teams working on drug cases and in 2019 we had 154 offences registered under NDPS Act while only 44 were registered in 2018. Cyber crimes, too, have increased from 120 to 417.”