The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : No significant increase in violent crimes, say police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 27, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

No significant increase in violent crimes, say police

Staff Reporter

Only cases of chain-snatching and mobile phone theft have increased, says Ajai Kumar Singh

Bangalore: Is the crime graph in the city going up and Bangalore becoming a not-too-safe city like some bigger metros? No, says Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh.

Stung by some scathing reports in a section of press, the Commissioner on Monday sought to convince the media that there is no significant increase in violent crime such as murder for gain or dacoity. "Cases of snatching of gold chains increased from 107 incidents in 2004 to 185 by the end of November this year. Of these cases, only 16 per cent were detected," Mr. Singh said.

During the last 15 days alone, the police in the city's five divisions had to deal with 30 major cases of crime and were able to recover stolen property estimated at Rs. 40 lakhs, including cars, motorcycles and mobile phones.

Regarding murder for gain, there were 16 cases last year and the detection rate was below 50 per cent. This year, there were 11 cases and 10 were followed up and the perpetrators arrested, he said. There were 198 cases of murder not-for-gain last year and 2.5 per cent of the cases were solved. In 2005, there have been 203 cases with a 14 per cent detection rate, Mr. Singh said.

Dacoity cases

Last year, there were 268 cases of dacoity, of which 68 were detected and the culprits identified; this year there were 373 cases and 203 cases have been solved, the Police Commissioner said.

"Where a murder is caused due to a family or property dispute or jealousy, the police cannot be held responsible. If it is a killing by a gang or a fight between rival gangs, yes, hold us responsible," Mr. Singh said.

During 2004, there were 3,001 cases of vehicle thefts, both cars and two-wheelers. The police could recover the stolen vehicles in 434 cases. Till the end of November 2005, there were 3,461 vehicle thefts and 18 per cent of the vehicles have been recovered.

With regard to other thefts, including stealing of mobile phones, there were 1,910 cases last year and 5,885 this year, he said. But, most were petty thefts, he claimed.

This year, there were 6,699 road accidents in the city and their causes were being analysed.

"Our overall crime detection rate has been good and in some cases better this year. There is no cause for people to get alarmed," Mr. Singh said.

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