Women-specific beats paying off: Delhi Police

Usha Rangnani, deputy commissioner of police (north-west), said that over the last week alone, as many as half-a-dozen crimes ranging from bootlegging to snatching were solved by these women police personnel.

Nearly six months after ‘Tejaswini’ -- an initiative in which policewomen were tasked with taking care of certain beats in north-west Delhi -- the police on Sunday said the initiative was paying off.

Policewomen standing guard outside police headquarters in New Delhi. (AP)

Usha Rangnani, deputy commissioner of police (north-west), said that over the last week alone, as many as half-a-dozen crimes ranging from bootlegging to snatching were solved by these women police personnel.

The latest of these crimes took place on Thursday when a burglar was caught riding a stolen scooter without a number plate in Mukherjee Nagar. “Head constable Pooja chased and caught the suspect, 24-year-old Tarun. From him, two stolen scooters were recovered,” said Rangnani.

Earlier, three women constables seized 156 quarters of illicit liquor in Keshav Puram even as similar actions were pursued by their colleagues in Model Town and Bharat Nagar.

In Ashok Vihar, a woman constable recovered a minor girl allegedly kidnapped and in Bharat Nagar another policewoman pinned down an alleged snatcher.

Tejaswini began in north-west district on July 10 last year. Under the initiative, women constables and head constables were tasked with handling “women earmarked” beats such as JJ clusters, certain residential areas, malls and markets, schools and colleges.