E-Paper
Number of murders in Punjab has reduced: DGP VK Bhawra
Murders have decreased marginally in Punjab and the police is making efforts to decrease it further, said DGP VK Bhawra.
: With AAP government facing flak from the opposition over repeated murder cases in the state, DGP Punjab VK Bhawra on Monday said the number of killings per month in the state has reduced and police was making efforts to decrease it further.
DGP Bhawra on Monday said a total of 158 murders took place till March this year with with an average of around 50 murders per month. A total of 724 murders happened in 2021, with an average of 60-65 cases per month.
“This trend is revealing murders have decreased marginally in the state but this is also not a happy trend and the police is making efforts to decrease it further,” Bhawra said during a press conference here.
He was accompanied by ADGP Internal Security RN Dhoke and ADGP Promod Ban, who is the AGTF chief.
In the murder cases this year, direct and indirect involvement of gangsters was found only in 6 cases, all of which have been traced after a thorough investigation on professional lines, DGP Bhawra said, adding a total of 24 accused involved in these cases have been arrested along with a recovery of seven pistols, 18 cartridges and seven vehicles.
All these were blind murders in which culprits were not known, he said, adding that efforts are on to arrest the remaining accused.
He said that police was taking action against organised gangs and criminals since January 1, 2022 and various units of the Punjab police have busted 16 gangster modules and arrested 98 individuals involved in these activities. A large cache of weapons has been recovered from them, including four rifles and 68 pistols/revolvers besides 30 vehicles used by these criminals.
Apart from these, there were nine non-gangster related murders that took place this year. They have all been traced and most of the accused have been arrested, said the DGP.
He said that family/matrimonial dispute, rivalry or monetary dispute were among the main reasons behind these crimes.
The DGP said Punjab police has been taking effective action against the gangsters operating within the state and in the past few years have successfully identified 545 gangsters of A, B & C categories and has already taken effective action against 515 out of these along with recovery of a large number of weapons, vehicles and communication equipment.
