Amaravati: Crime rate on a downslide

Amaravati: There is a 15 per cent reduction in cognizable offence cases in Andhra Pradesh in 2020 compared to 2019.

The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report states that the crimes under the IPC recorded during 2019 were 1,19,229 whereas the number had come down to 1,00,620 in 2020. (This does not include the Covid-19 cases which for some strange reason included in the list as 88,337, including which the total cases in AP would be 1,88,997).

The NCRB noted that the State Governments' efforts in establishing a Special Enforcement Bureau to check the crimes in sand, Excise, Narcotics and Prohibition segments had led to greater checks on the activities leading to focused positive work.

Under the Prohibition Act, Excise Act and NDPS Act (Narcotic substances) the number of cases booked in 2019 were 3,024, 6,908 and 717 whereas the same were 12,775, 21,003 and 866 in 2020. This amounted to an increase of 322 per cent, 204 per cent, 21 per cent in busting the cases respectively. There was also a dip in crime against women in the State with 17,089 cases recorded in 2020 against 17,746 in 2019. Murders were 853 in 2020 against 870 in the previous year.

Crime against SC/ST category which was in high focus in 2020 also showed a decline from 2,401 to 2,270 while kidnappings and abductions came down from 902 to 737. Road accidents too came down from 14,700 to 12,830 and cyber crime recorded a 1 per cent growth from 1,886 to 1,899.

The robberies were 310 and 237 (2019 and 2020), dacoities, 40 and 39, thefts, 11,301 and 9,508 and house breaking incidents were 756 and 555 (by day) and 3,101 and 2831 (by night).

As for the petitions received by the police in 2020 through 'Spandana' recorded 45,578 complaints and FIRs' registered were 10,544 complaints. Disha App received 671 complaints and 135 FIRs got registered. For 3,887 complaints 119 FIRs were registered through AP Police Seva Mobile App and Cyber Mitra WhatsApp recorded 2,436 complaints and 353 FIRs had been registered. Dial 112 and 100 recorded 10,816 and 2,10,025 complaints and 317 and 6,123 FIRs had been lodged.

Notably 'Disha' received up to 3,500 complaints or alerts and actionable SOS to the tune of 50 to 60 and after CM's promotional launch 7 FIRs had been booked in 2020. Similarly, Cyber Mithra received up to 15 complaints a day and Dial 112 up to 4,000 calls and Dial 100 up to 30,000 calls.

Police Seva received on an average 27 calls per day leading to one FIR on an average. However, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu topped the list in chargesheets of above 90 per cent, the NCRB report stated.