Guwahati, Aug 26: In a significant development apparently triggered by effective policibg and pubic awareness, the overall crime rate in the city has dropped by around 48 percent in the first seven months of this year.
Guwahati police commissioner Harmeet Singh has informed that the crime rate has fallen from 11,923 cases during January-July of 2021 to 6236 cases in the corresponding period this year.
“Robbery cases in the city have fallen by 73 percent during period (from 515 cases to 135 cases, burglary cases by 47 percent (from 704 cases last year to 368 cases this year), theft cases have fallen by 41 percent (from 1698 cases to 1012 cases) while extortion cases too has seen a fall of 51 percent (from 93 to 47),” Singh said.
“Cheating cases too have come down during the period from 981 cases last year to 947 cases this year. However, as opposed to physical cheating last year, this year there has been a huge increase in phone-based/whataspp-based and email-based crimes with 60 percent of the cases related to cyber crime,” he said.
Significantly, the police official said that while murder cases have increased by 23 percent (from 30 last year to 37 this year), “about 90 percent of the murders were committed by persons within the victim’s social circle (within friends and family), a trend that has been quite baffling.”
On the other hand, cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have risen by 17 percent (from 128 last year to 151 year.
“This trend has been mainly due to intensive drive against the drug menace in the state once the new government took charge in May last year. The number of arrests has also increased substantially during the period,” the police official said.
“The rise in NDPS Act cases is mainly due to the thrust on eliminating drug menace in the state after the new government took charge in May last year. The number of arrests has also increased substantially during the period,” he added.
Singh further informed that kidnapping cases have gone down by 33 percent (to 210 this year from 313 last year), rape to 39 cases from 41 cases last year, molestation to 83 cases from 187 last year and cases under section 498(A) of IPC/POSCO by 60 percent (from 555 to 225).
IANS