Bengaluru tops in crimes against women in State, registers 27% rise

Bengaluru has topped the list for the maximum number of crimes committed against women across the State, according to the crime statistics compiled by the State police for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

While the crimes against women continue to rise in Karnataka, Bengaluru reported nearly 27 per cent of the cases. A total of 4,862 cases have been reported in the City and these include 83 murders, 104 sexual assaults, 57 dowry deaths and 618 kidnaps and abductions.

Of the total registered cases in 2014, 13 per cent were related to crimes against women. The State has reported as many as 1,37,338 cases under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2014, of which, 17,792 cases were women-related crimes such as rape, kidnapping, dowry harassment, molestation among others.

Pro-women forums say the reason for this disturbing trend is police inaction and their inability to protect women from falling prey to abusers, especially in incidents of rape, kidnapping or eve-teasing.

According to them, these crimes can be prevented if the police were more active.
K S Vimala of the All India Democratic Women’s Association told Deccan Herald that the police and the judiciary were responsible for the increasing crimes against women because they had failed to act tough against the offenders.

She said the police should take stringent action on incidents of crimes against women and the courts should pronounce the verdict in these cases quickly. This will act as a warning, she added.

Meanwhile, officials of the police computer wing and crime records bureau are in the process of preparing the crime statistics for 2015. An official source involved in the data collection process said there had been no decline in crimes against women in 2015.
DH News Service