Huge jump in registration of cases, police say that's good

Nearly 74,000 IPC cases registered last year, up from 51,000 in 2012

There has been a 43 per cent increase in cases registered in the Capital compared to last year, but police highlighted it was due to ensuring ‘free registration’ remaining to be their priority.

The city saw 73,958 cases under Indian Penal Code in 2013 as compared to 51,479 cases in 2012. The figure included 487 cases of murder, 558 attempt to murder, 1,559 rapes, 3,319 snatchings, 3,347 molestations of women, 1,109 robberies and 13,900 motor-vehicle thefts.

A success rate of 83.56 per cent was achieved in heinous crimes. “Ensuring free registration of cases has always been my priority. Needless to say, the process of providing justice to a victim of a cognisable crime cannot begin unless an FIR is registered upon a complaint,” said Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi, adding the endeavor has received total support from the government.

Complaints received in police stations pertaining to rape, molestation of women and insult to modesty of women were also investigated on priority. In 2013, 1,559 rape cases were reported as compared to 680 in 2012. In all, except 58 cases, the accused were known to the victims. In order to address such issues, women police are also being deployed in civil clothes at appropriate places.

Police said murder is a true indicator of crime, which has seen a decline of 3.37 per cent.  In 2013, 487 cases were registered as against 504 in 2012.

Analysis of motives reveal that 20.74 per cent cases were due to sudden provocation or trivial issues, 16.02 per cent due to old enmity, 10.68 per cent were sex related, 10.27 per cent due to differences amongst family members and 11.70 per cent to disputes over property or money matters. Only 8.42 per cent were crime related.

This year, police will also focus on missing children with more officers being tasked to trace missing and kidnapped children.

“Kidnapping cases will be registered immediately on receipt of complaints of missing children,” Bassi added. In 2013, 5,565 kidnapping cases were registered, against 3,503 in 2012.

Another priority this year is to rein in rash drivers and make the roads safer for people. To rein in the undisciplined public transport vehicles and ensure passenger safety, a special drive was also launched against public transport vehicles for flouting traffic laws and for plying without effective documents.

During the year, 2.23 lakh public transport vehicles were prosecuted during the special drive which included 13,487 chartered buses, 23,600 Gramin Sewas, 5,603 DTC buses, 1.26 lakh autorickshaws and 37,757 taxis.

Bassi insisted that he firmly believes that policing’s boundaries are defined by the law of the land, but it does not mean that there is no scope for innovation and experimentation. “Out of the box solutions — common sense based or rooted in technology — as long as within the confines of law need to be encouraged. A number of ideas are being incubated and their roll out in 2014 may further help in performing our task better,” Bassi added.

Surprise checks of police stations were also conducted to find system-related flaws. It included checking of police station records comprising arrest register, MACT cases register, complaint register, missing persons register, uploading of data on ZIPNET, number of PCR calls received/disposed off, non-registration of FIR, if any and the treatment/behaviour with the complainants.

“The alertness of staff at vital help desks in the police station like women’s help desk was specially checked. System-related flaws found were brought to the notice of all supervisory ranks concerned for improvement,” said S Sundari Nanda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Vigilance).