Crime against women on decline in Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada: The initiatives taken by the Andhra Pradesh to check crimes against women are yielding fruitful results as the number of cases were decreasing for the last two years. Moreover, the police have speed up investigation in the cases related to crime against women by appointing more staff and filing chargesheet as early as possible. Apps like Disha were also helping the police to register the cases without the complainant attending to the police station.

On an average investigation time has come down from 119 days in 2018 to 101 days in 2019 and it further fell to 53 days by the end of 2020. The police on an average were taking 53 days to complete the investigation of the cases compared to 101 days taken in 2019.

According to press release issued by DGP Gautam Sawang revealed that the cases of crime against women also decreased since 2017.

Total cases reported on crime against the women in the state in 2020 were 12,784. Last year, 14,624 cases were reported. Similarly, 14,614 and 13,899 cases were registered in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The police received 523 calls through the Disha application and 107 FIRs were registered. A total of 5,948 calls were received through Dial 100. The police were receiving complaints through Dial 112 also.

There was huge response to the Disha app from the women and girls. A total of 11.8 lakh persons downloaded the Disha application while 97,525 SOS requests were placed that include 671 actionable calls and the police have registered 135 FIRs. In all 377 Zero-FIR were registered (316 in 2020 and 61 in 2019) The Zero-FIR can be filed in any police station irrespective of place of incident / jurisdiction and can be transferred to the concerned police station later.

The police were trying to create awareness on Disha application, ill effects of eve teasing, ragging in educational institutions, women safety etc.