Murders, stabbings, and robberies leave residents of upmarket South Delhi worried

Incidents, such as Thursday evening’s shooting at a busy residential street in South Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park, leave locals feeling unsure of their safety.

A spree of incidents -- gunshots, stabbings, snatching and robberies – in public places, especially in parts of the town usually considered safer than others, has triggered concerns among residents and experts, who say the police must redouble efforts to keep the city safe.

(Representative Photo)

Incidents, such as Thursday evening’s shooting at a busy residential street in South Delhi’s Chittaranjan (CR) Park, leave locals feeling unsure of their safety. Over the past weekend, a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend in the South Campus area, hours after a dozen men cornered a family and shot dead two women in RK Puram.

In CR Park, residents said they feel there is a distinct increase in street crimes. “People are scared and there are security concerns… There is also a rise in incidents of theft, snatching and carjacking in the area. All this needs to be checked and better policing is needed,” said PK Paul, secretary, CR Park, RWA.

Police officials, however, disputed the characterisation. “We have taken many steps to curb street crimes that include timely detection of such cases and busting the entire gang, if any. Increased patrolling by police personnel in street crimes-prone areas is another preventive step that we have been taking,” deputy commissioner of police, southeast, Rajesh Deo.

Data shared by officials of cases recorded till June 15 suggested there are fewer heinous crimes this year till now (the data for previous years were only of full-year figures, and not a month-wise break-up that would have been more appropriate for a comparison). Cases of dacoity and robbery too appeared to be fewer in number on average.

“Registration of robberies and snatchings have decreased this year as compared to last year. In 2022, there were 37 robbery cases and it has come down to 21 this year. Similarly, there were 138 snatching cases last year but this year only 114 such cases were registered till date. As far as murders of the two sisters and the DU students are concerned, we solved both cases within hours,” said deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Manoj C.

But experts said public sentiment can diverge from official numbers, especially since street crimes create more fear.

“Street and organised crimes affect the public at large. Earlier, beat police officers would keep a vigil on habitual as well as budding criminals, maintaining their records and often checking their movement. But these days beat police officers mostly involve in issues of personal interest. Similarly, specialised teams such as special district staff kept a check on criminals involved in organised crimes through human intelligence gathering. But now they depend more on technical investigation – such probes help in solving crimes but not in preventing them,” said retired Delhi Police’s assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Rajender Singh, who was part of the team that solved the December 16 gangrape case.

Residents agreed that beat policing needs to be improved.

“Earlier between 9pm and 11pm, beat constables on motorcycles would pass by all South Delhi localities. Now they cannot be seen anywhere,” said Chetan Sharma, founder general secretary of Confederation of NCR RWAs.

Vasant Kunj RWA president, AK Mehta, said: “Safety is being compromised because police have also been stressed with other work such as legal processes. Beat police should not be used for any other purpose and beats should be made smaller so that police is available in such cases.”