Crimes on railway premises down since 2019: GRP

The data of GRP from January 2022 to June 2022 revealed that not just the crime rate but the deaths of commuters on railway premises has also gone down considerably compared to the same period in 2019.

Mumbai: If the Government Railway Police (GRP) is to be believed, railway commuters are much safer now as most of the petty criminals are behind bars. The GRP officials claimed that in 2020 and 2021, they managed to arrest many criminals a result of which the crime rate has gone down.

The statistics stated that in 2019 there were 15,977 cases of theft registered which came down by 5,708 in 2022. (Hindustan Times)

The data of GRP from January 2022 to June 2022 revealed that not just the crime rate but the deaths of commuters on railway premises has also gone down considerably compared to the same period in 2019.

According to the statistics, in the first six months of 2019, there were 16,948 cases registered compared to 6,313 cases in 2022. The data also revealed that the deaths of commuters also came down by 126 in 2022 compared to 2019. In 2019, 1,322 people had lost their lives on railway premises while in 2022, 1,196 people died.

Officers said that there are several reasons for the decrease in crime rate but the main reason is that several record criminals have been put behind bars which is acting as prevention of crime. “The detection rate in the past two years has increased which is acting as prevention now,” said Anil Kadam, senior police inspector of Borivali GRP.

The statistics stated that in 2019 there were 15,977 cases of theft registered which came down by 5,708 in 2022. Similarly, robbery cases also halved. In 2019, there were 662 cases filed and in 2022 the number came down to 347.

Even serious crime cases have decreased. For example, murder cases registered in 2019 were 6 which came down to 4 in 2022, rape cases registered in 2019 were 12 which came down to 4 in 2022 and molestation cases which were 60 in 2019 came down to 39 in 2022. Only dacoity cases showed an increase. In 2019 there were zero dacoity cases registered and in 2022 the number went up to 2.

Quaiser Khalid, the commissioner of police (GRP), said that the decrease in crime was due to constant awareness campaigns, registration of offence, review of vulnerability by incorporating software-based technology, improvement in CCTV surveillance systems, modernisation of the crime database, follow up on criminals outside the state boundary, constantly reviewing progress made by various units etc are responsible for the prevention of crime on railway premises.

When asked whether registration of crime had gone down, Khalid replied in the affirmative and said, “Although the commuters have returned to pre-Covid levels, steps, as highlighted above, have helped. Our crime branch is constantly focusing on inter-state crimes or criminals who have run away fearing arrest.”

Khalid said that constant patrolling has also helped in reducing deaths on railway tracks. Deaths by trespassing which were 713 in 2019 came down to 637 in 2022 and deaths of people falling off trains came down from 302 in 2019 to 283 in 2022. People who died after hitting a pole increased from 2 in 2019 to 3 in 2022.

Activist Sameer Zaveri said, “The officers began arresting criminals to show a healthy detection rate which helped in preventing the crime now. If this is the case, it is good news and the same method should be applied to the entire state police as well.”

The officers also said that keeping a check on illegal entry and exit points on the railway premises like broken boundary walls etc has helped in reducing the entry of petty criminals and trespassers.