In national capital, more than one rape, one murder a day

New Delhi: Despite the initiatives taken by the Delhi Police to make the city safe for women, at least one rape took place every day in the city last year. The 2011 witnessed 12.03 percent rise in rape cases as compared to previous year. As many as 568 rapes took place in Delhi in the year as compared to 507 cases in 2010. In 98 percent of these cases, the accused were known to the victim. Only 2.8 percent rapes were committed by strangers. [caption id=“attachment_174882” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Giving crime statistics. Danish Raza/Firstpost”]  [/caption] “Except 14 rape cases reported during 2011, the accused were known to the victims and were first timers. Thus it is seen that these are opportunistic crimes committed in private space,” said Delhi Police commissioner Brjesh Gupta during the Annual Delhi Police conference on Friday. “In molestation of women, 653 cases have been reported against 601 cases last year,’” said Gupta. However, the number of molestation cases per lakh of population has shown an overall decline and come down from 5.12 in 2005 to 3.90 in 2011. There were at least four registered cases of chain snatching every day in the city last year. In 2011, as many as 1476 cases of chain snatching were reported as compared to 1671 cases reported in 2010. Though the total number of murder cases showed a marginal decline of 3.8 percent, the numbers were still high at 543. In other words, at least one person was murdered in the national capital every day in 2011. Out of these, only 13 percent were crime related murders. “Analysis of murder cases in 2011 reveals that 17 percent of the cases were due to sudden provocation on trivial issues, 10 percent were due to old enmity, 18 percent were sex related, 9 percent were due to indifferences among family members and 11 percent were due to disputes over property or money matters,” said the city police chief. Kidnappings for ransom witnessed a rise of 38.8 percent. Overall, Delhi Police registered 2167 cases of heinous crimes in 2011 as compared to 2,085 cases in the previous year. “Delhi, being the capital of the country, has been developing at a rapid pace. This urbanisation has also led to certain factors which have a bearing on the crime rate in the city. The addition of large number of new colonies and thousands of unplanned colonies is a critical crimogenic factor particularly in respect of street crimes like robberies and snatching,” said Gupta. According to the analysis of the Delhi Police, socio-economic inequality, urban anonymity encouraging deviant behaviour, loosening of social structure and adverse sex ratio were responsible for increasing crime in the city. In 2010, Delhi police made 38 arrests under MCOCA. “There were 13 new proposals on which court will decide soon,” said Gupta. “In November, we got a breakthrough by busting a pan India module of Indian Mujahideen. We solved four cases by arresting seven terror operatives. These included Pune Germany Bakery blast, Chinnaswamy stadium blast, Jama Masjid shoot out and blast,” said Gupta, adding that the war against terror would remain top on the agenda of Delhi Police in 2012. The vigilance investigation unit of the city police found that 24 police officials were involved in corrupt practices in 2011. During the year, two cases have been registered and six such cases are pending investigation in the unit. As many as 1,023 police personnel served major punishment last year. Out of these, 160 were dismissed, removed or terminated from the service and increments of 205 were withheld.