‘Smart’ criminals on the rise

More accused manage to get anticipatory bail following CrPC amendment

Persons who have been accused in criminal cases are becoming more lawsavvy and taking advantage of the latest amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, are taking recourse to anticipatory bail in large numbers.

According to the State Crime Records Bureau statistics released by the CID, some 8,105 persons surrendered before the courts and 6,043 persons were granted anticipatory bail during the year 2012, as against 6,473 surrendered in courts and 4,993 granted anticipatory bail in 2011.

The number of arrests made by police has declined with 3,61,224 persons being arrested by the police in 2012, as against 3,61,902 arrested in 2011.

Anticipatory bail was sought in two recent high profile cases. In the Green Fields land grabbing case, MLA Shankar Rao obtained anticipatory bail. The CID has decided to file a chargesheet after the government grants permission to prosecute him.

Osmania University assistant professor N. Siva Sh-ankar was also granted anticipatory bail in a sexual abuse case. He allegedly threatened students again and had to be arrested.

The most number of arrests were made in Cyberabad — 28,644 — followed by Adilabad (21,302), Hyderabad City (19,296) and Kadapa (18,827).

Many of the arrests in the city are attributed to the Telangana agitation and communal riots, whereas in Kadapa, many were arrested in the violence that followed the arrest of Kadapa MLA Jaganmohan Reddy.