Warangal: Crimes against women goe up

Warangal: Although the overall crime rate was up by 3.84 per cent in the Warangal Police Commissionerate limits in 2021, what causes consternation is a significant rise in crime against women.

The year witnessed 845 cases relating to crime against women compared to 638 in 2020. Topping the chart was harassment against women (497 cases) and molestation (253 cases). This apart, 85 rape cases and 10 dowry deaths were also recorded.

The number of homicides in the Commissionerate continued to rise from 34 in 2020 to 51 in 2021. On the other hand, the number of property offences has also gone up to 660 against last year's 422. Numbers of other major crimes - robberies (26), cheating (705) and kidnapping (174) – have also gone up significantly.

Despite the preventive measures taken by the police, the number of fatal road accidents (1,106) witnessed a spurt this year compared to last year's 984. It may be mentioned here that the number of fatal road accidents was low last year due to coronavirus lockdown. While the number of people killed was 426, a whopping 1,110 sustained injuries.

The Commissionerate also witnessed an increase in drunken driving cases. The police registered 11,980 cases this year and the penalty imposed by the court was Rs 65.68 lakh. As many as 1,365 persons were sent to prison. The number of drunken driving cases was 3,139 in 2020. There was a 4.33 per cent decrease in the number of cases in regard with gutka. The police seized gutka worth Rs 62.83 lakh against last year's Rs 1.30 crore.

Commissioner of Police Tarun Joshi had a special praise for the Task Force Police who arrested 806 persons in 270 cases and seized property worth Rs 4.71 crore from them. He said that the police arrested 249 people involved in ganja cases and seized the contraband worth over Rs 1 crore.

The arrest of a betting racket in which police seized Rs 2 crore was one of the big catches this year, Tarun Joshi said.