Crimes on trains reach pre-pandemic levels in Karnataka

After a significant drop in the number of crimes on trains in 2020, the numbers have risen again in Karnataka with the country returning to normalcy after the Covid pandemic.

According to the data by the Karnataka Government Railway Police, 1,863 cases were recorded in 2019 and the numbers came down to 756 in 2020, owing to the pandemic. However, the number of cases slowly moved up to 920 by 2021, and this year, so far, 1,220 cases have been registered.

While the officials said that the number of cases may not reach the 2019 levels, they opined that the pre-pandemic trends had returned.

“The number of crimes was a little low during the first half of the year. But, as most of the restrictions were relaxed and travel returned to normalcy, crimes also started increasing,” a senior official from the Karnataka Government Railway Police said.

While theft is a major crime reported, the officials have observed that mobile thefts are the major crimes reported over the last five years. For instance, in 2021, of the 920 cases reported, 764 were theft cases.

“Over the last five to six years, the predominant crime has been mobile theft. That apart, chain snatching and baggage loss are also reported widely,” said Dr Soumyalatha S K, Superintendent of Police, Railways.

She added that they have increased the number of personnel put on beats and are also focussing on trains that report more incidents.

“Apart from officials patrolling on their beats, we have officials who move around in mufti. Also, we have identified trains and routes that report more crimes and deployed additional staff,” she said.

However, senior police officials who have worked with the railway police said the shortage of personnel had hit continuous monitoring.

"Though personnel have been assigned a beat, there are kilometres of railway tracks across the state and there is an acute shortage of staff. Appointment of more staff could definitely help bring down the crime rates," the officials said.

Soumyalatha however said that preventing and investigating crimes on trains is challenging. "The major challenge is that trains travel thousands of kilometres and people report theft and such incidents only at the destination. It is difficult to pinpoint the location of incidence," she said.

She added that there were also problems with establishing the jurisdiction and tracing the crime back to different states.

On a positive note, Soumyalatha added that the recovery rate has been over 90% over the last few years.

The cases registered by the Railways Protection Force (RPF) in Karnataka have also gone up as compared to 2020.

According to the data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 30,575 cases were recorded in 2019, and the numbers came down to 8,917 in 2020. But, it rose to 21,244 by 2021. Damage to railway property and chain pulling are some of the major RPF offences reported.