Delhi crimes up 8.1% in one yr, those against women up 17%

Cases of crime reported in Delhi till July 15 this year increased by 8.1%, compared to the same period last year, as per statistics shared by the Delhi Police on Wednesday.

The data showed that cases of theft at homes registered the maximum increase, with 7,561 instances compared to 1,158 last year. Instances of heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, kidnapping saw an almost 13% increase. Non-heinous crimes, such as snatching, burglary and vehicle theft went up by 8%. Cases of crime against women saw a 16.9% increase till July 15 this year, compared to the corresponding period last year.

Police attributed the spike to citizens registering FIRs online, but residents said burglaries are a “real problem” and the actual number may be higher.

“When Covid-19 pandemic hit, anti-social elements would regularly scale walls and gates and pick a thing or two from the galleries of the houses. I remember

people putting iron bars for safety, but the thefts continued. The most we could do was install gates, but now the authorities call that encroachment so we are stuck. Police cannot take care of each and every household in a locality,” said BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front. A second caveat is likely to be the outbreak of the devastating second wave of Covid-19 in March-April last year, when the Capital went into a mostly selfimposed lockdown as the health care capacity buckled under a heavy load of cases.

Cases of vehicle theft in 2022 also reported an increase with 19,548 cases, compared to 18,814 last year. Delhi has been notorious for its high number of vehicles thefts. According to the 2019 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, a vehicle is stolen every 12 minutes in the city; while in Mumbai, one is stolen every four hours, and in Bengaluru, one is stolen every two hours. A special commissioner of police, who asked not to be named, said the data should not simply be looked at in terms of the rise in the number of cases, but in the perspective of the ease in registration of cases and the police force’s commitment to record and investigate crime.

“It’s a facility [e-FIRs] given to the people and it’s good but they use it as per their understanding. For instance, from experience of lower rank officers who investigate these cases, it has emerged that people confuse a lost item report with a house theft case, and lodge it online accordingly. But we understand that this is a new system and awareness will eventually increase,” the policeman said.