Crime goes zonal in the city

Delhi’s crime graph breaks the city into two groups— the crime-ridden periphery of resettlement colonies, slum clusters and the other, reports Ravi Bajpai.

Demographically speaking, Delhi’s crime graph breaks the city into two groups— the crime-ridden periphery of resettlement colonies, slum clusters and the other, the less susceptible rest of Delhi. After all, more than half of the heinous crimes reported in 2007 were from the about 20 per cent of the city’s total police stations that are located in the colonies outside the Outer Ring Road, according to police records.

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These colonies are inhabited by poor migrants and semi-skilled workers who have moved into the city’s periphery to earn a livelihood. “A lot of them are under employed or unemployed and take to crime to make quick money. Even petty crimes take serious proportions and sometimes lead to murders and dacoity,” said an officer. These areas primarily include those like Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Sangam Vihar, Nangloi and Trilokpuri among others.

For instance, 26 such police stations recorded 236 of the total 467 murder cases last year. Compare this to zero murders reported in 23 police stations located in the heart of Delhi. Similarly, just 24 police stations in the city’s periphery areas reported about 50 percent of the total rape cases.

Police records, however, suggest a lower crime rate as compared to 2006. The number of criminal cases registered was 53,244, a decline of 1881 from 2006. All heinous crimes like murder, attempt to murder and rape have gone down.

White collar and economic crimes have increased manifold in 2007. Cyber crime cases went up by 200 per cent and cases relating to credit card frauds, online share trading, phishing and online purchasing have jumped by 500 per cent.