Guwahati, Dec 22: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has expressed concern over the increasing incidence of crimes in Guwahati of late even as he bestowed confidence on the city police to curb them at the earliest.
“There is a cause for concern over rising incidents of theft, dacoity and vehicle lifting in Guwahati in the past one month. But I believe that it is just a matter of time that such crimes would be cracked. The city police have earlier also tackled such crimes and curbed them,” the chief minister said on Thursday.
Notably, various incidents of bike-borne ‘dacoits’ snatching chains from women, at times taking resort to arms to threaten the victim, besides lifting four-wheelers from a high-security zone such as the Assembly campus in Dispur and areas close to the capital complex, have raised questions on how equipped the city police are to tackle crimes.
City commissioner of police Diganta Barah, who took charge just a few days back, also addressed the media on Wednesday to assure citizens that such crimes, which have taken place earlier also, would be curbed.
Barah admitted that there has been a relative surge in crimes such as chain snatching, mobile phone thefts and vehicle lifting in the city in areas under some police stations over the past few days.
“However, there is no need for the citizens to panic as the police administration is taking concrete steps to curb such crimes. In the past four to five days, five cases of chain snatching have been reported and four persons have been picked up for questioning while another four have been arrested. There have been recoveries as well. The city police are maintaining strict vigil to curb such crimes,” the police official said.
Barah said that in the past few days, 17 vehicle thefts have been reported.
“Of these, seven stolen cars have been recovered and 13 arrests have also been made. Criminals are changing their modus operandi but we are planning to counter this strategy of criminals. I want to assure the people that the city police are with them and we will be successful in curbing crimes,” he said.
The city police commissioner, when asked about the ‘dangerous’ trend of criminals brandishing arms to threaten victims in incidents such as chain snatching, said, “The police is preparing a plan to track the source of such weapons, and also analyse if there have been any loopholes on the part of the police in the past, and accordingly plug them,” he said.