In season of music, crime drives north in Chennai

Chennai: The armed bank robbery on a nationalised bank in Chennai on Monday has dented the state government’s promise and record on law and order. In the aforementioned incident, a four-member gang cleaned up the cash counter of a nationalised bank after scaring its customers and employees at gunpoint, before fleeing the scene in a waiting car.

In recent days, there has been a continuous spate of crime in the city and the most glaring has been a series of murders.

The first ten days of the New Year were greeted by a murder a day. By January 20, the number of murders stood at 16.

Improvement of the law and order situation is one of the promises that the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa made immediately after she came to power in May last. With the change in government, people in the state can now feel free and live without fear, she had said. “Women at home don’t need to be worried about the safety of their men when they go to work.” In a lighter vein she also said that the chain snatchers have fled to Andhra Pradesh after she came to power.

She appointed efficient officers of high standing in key police posts: K Ramanujam as the DGP and JK Tripathi as the city police commissioner. There have been initiatives such as sector policing, intensified patrolling and rounding up of anti-social elements under Goonda’s Act. Still, incidents of crime continue.

The murders neither belonged to any particular class nor were they confined to some areas of the city. Here are some examples: a young beautician from Andhra Pradesh found dead in her apartment; a middle-aged banker strangled to death in front of her sister; an unidentified man found dead at a railway station with his head crushed against the wall; and a disabled RTI activist hacked in front her school-going daughter. The motives were mostly murder for gain, indicating the organised and blatant nature of the crimes.

Despite tough words by the chief minister and efforts by the senior police officers, something is wrong somewhere.

One of the reasons cited is the inefficiency at the lower end of the police force and the frequent shuffles of the middle level officers. Another possibility is the decline, that was already in motion, going unchecked. That the bank robbery on Monday was apparently carried out by a North Indian gang, also indicates the free rein of inter-state criminal groups. Of late, all the South Indian states have reported crimes by criminals from outside the state.

The state has a high detection rate of crime, but the conviction rate, according to the National Crime Records Bureau is only slightly above the national average. Despite an efficient police force and governance system, the state’s conviction rate is only 44.4%. In this context, punishment cannot be a great deterrent. The government should, instead put in place more effective systems for prevention, including strengthening of intelligence, efficiency of the lower end of the police force and addressing the socio-economic causes and consequences.

Immediate steps are needed for prevention. For instance, the bank that was robbed on Monday didn’t have CCTV. The robbers, who decamped with Rs 19 lakh in about 15 minutes hadn’t masked their faces, but without a surveillance camera, the police has no clue and is now busy sketching their images.

Interestingly, Chennai’s sensational music season has become a season of crime this year.