E-Paper
Lockdown latest: Incident of major crimes nosedive in Uttarakhand except for murders
Uttarakhand Police attributed the decline in crime rates to lockdown restrictions and more alert policing.
The lockdown imposed to curb the spread of deadly Covid-19 virus in Uttarakhand has also led to a reduction in the number of crimes and road accidents in the state. Major crimes including rape have come down by about 95% in April in comparison to the same period last year.
State police released data comparing crimes and road accidents in the month of April this year with figures of April 2019, which shows that the incidents of rape in the state have come down to just two from 43 in April last year, a steep fall of about 95%. Similarly, only seven instances of vehicle-theft were registered in April this year against 68 in 2019-- a fall of about 89%.
In other major crimes, burglary incidents in April stood at 17, nearly half of 35 incidents recorded last year. Theft cases, at 24 this April, were also less than half of 64 cases registered last April.
However, there was only a nominal decrease in the number of murders as a total of eight cases were registered in April, just two less than last year.
According to the data, overall incidents of crime in April this year stood at 522, compared to 853 incidents in the same period last year.
Restrictions on vehicular traffic during the lockdown brought the number of road accidents in the state down to just 12--a steep plunge of about 95% --- in comparison to 107 incidents last April.
Similarly, only four road accident deaths were reported this April against 74 last year. 17 people received injuries in road accidents against 86 last year.
“Of course the drop is majorly due to the lockdown in the state. Also, since the police are more vigilant and alert during this lockdown with increased ground deployment, the total number of crimes have come down,” said Ashok Kumar, director general (law & order), Uttarakhand police.
