CCTVs help crack over 900 crime cases in Navi Mumbai

Navi Mumbai has been equipped with a network of CCTV cameras that have helped the police solve 936 crime cases since their installation in 2012. The cameras, installed by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra, have been used to monitor traffic, detect violators, and provide evidence in criminal investigations. The authorities have installed a total of 803 cameras, with plans to add an additional 1,200 in the future. The cameras are primarily located on important roads, junctions, sensitive areas, railway stations, markets, and bus stops.

Navi Mumbai

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Navi Mumbai, which is known to be a planned city in recent years, have also been connected via a web of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras by Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and by City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) which has helped the police not only in monitoring the traffic and violators, but has also helped them in detect several criminal cases in a big way.

From the time CCTV were installed by NMMC in the end of 2012, and by CIDCO in 2016, till date, 936 cases of crime in Navi Mumbai were solved with the help of the footages procured from the cameras. A total of 803 CCTVs have been installed by the authorities, of which 279 were installed by the NMMC in Zone I (Airoli to Belapur) and 524 by CIDCO at Zone II (Kharghar to Panvel).

“Majority of cameras are installed at important roads, junctions, communally sensitive areas, railway stations, markets and bus stops. Our officers in the command centre are always monitoring the screens, keeping a watch on suspicious activities. Besides, we also received requests of footages of particular areas and camera as per the requirement for the detection of any crime which is then provided by us,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (wireless), Girish Thakare, said. NMMC is in the process of installing more 1200 cameras in Zone I area.

For crimes like chain snatching, hit and run, vehicle thefts and any other crime that happens on the road, when there are no eye witnesses and enough information on the accused, the “go to” method for investigation remains scanning CCTV footage of the locations and sometimes even backtracking the accused through CCTV footage.

One such case was the murder of Nerul jeweller Savji Manjeri Patel (56) who was shot dead on March 2022 in Nerul while he was entering his car. By back tracking the movements of the accused, the police got vital clues which eventually traced the shooters and bike used in the crime. Similarly, CCTV footage played a crucial role in detecting a dacoity case of ₹2 crore from a businessman’s house in Vashi in 2017, trap Fayyaz Shaikh, a habitual chain snatcher with a crime record of 90 chain snatchings, arrest serial rapist Rehan Qureshi in 2017 and 2018, and many other thefts. During major morchas, the CCTV cameras come to help for the police to monitor the situation live from the command centres.

The CCTVs by NMMC were officially inaugurated in 2013, while some of them had been installed by the civic body by the end of 2012 on experimental basis. From 2012 December to December 2023, the total number of CCTV footage demanded by officers from Zone I (Airoli to Belapur) was 2,459 of which 1,589 footages were made available by the command centre officials to the investigating officer of the case. These footages were helpful in the investigations of 681 cases of which 343 could be solved only because of the availability of the footage.

Meanwhile, in Zone II (Kharghar to Panvel), the CCTVs were installed in August 2016 and till December 2023, 1,885 footages were demanded of which 1661 were made available. These footages helped in the investigations of 817 cases of which 325 were solved because of the footages. In 2023, a total of 693 footages were demanded of which 479 could be procured which helped in investigations of 472 cases and detected 38 of them. “With more CCTVs being installed by NMMC as per the locations and spots suggested by us, the area under our digital supervision will increase,” the officer added.