SN Shrivastava said there has been a decrease in the number of crimes against women even as the conviction rate rose.(File) Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava Friday said the number of arrests recorded in 2020 has increased by 15.4% despite crimes dropping in the capital.
According to police figures, 1.25 lakh arrests were made from 2,66,070 cases in 2020, as against 1.9 lakh arrests from 3,16,261 registered cases in 2019. Police said there was also a dip in crimes against women and cases of theft in the city last year.
“We feel this happened because police acted swiftly on PCR calls and made more arrests. Over 65-80% of crimes are now registered online without any police interface. This was started during the lockdown to solve public grievances,” said the CP.
Of the total cases, 1.64 lakh were registered online by complainants. Police said this encouraged people to file complaints from home without having to make trips to police stations.
Shrivastava also said there has been a decrease in the number of crimes against women even as the conviction rate rose. Last year, 1,699 rape cases were registered in comparison to 2,168 cases in 2019. Cases of molestation decreased by 25%, abduction by 31% and sexual harassment by 12%, police said.
“We have done this with the help of certain measures like mapping hotspots and ensuring enough deployment near these areas, in addition to deployment outside schools and colleges. We are monitoring PCR calls of such incidents at the highest priority. FIRs are registered immediately and final reports in rape cases are made in 60 days,” said an officer.
Police said they also studied trends in these cases and found that in almost 44% of rape cases, the accused is a family member or a friend of the victim. Police said the accused was unknown to the victim in only 2% of cases.
“We are using technology to help more women. We are getting more PCR calls and our force is acting on them. The force is trained and sensitised to work on such cases,” said the CP.
In other heinous crimes, police said, there has been a “sharp decline” in dacoity, murder, kidnapping, burglary and motor vehicle theft. However, there has been a rise in cases of robbery and snatching, with the latter witnessing a jump of 27% this year.
Police also said more than 32 terrorists were arrested last year. “This was the highest in the last five years. In 2019, we had arrested only five terrorists,” said police.
Despite stringent lockdown for months which put a stop to travel, Traffic Police collected Rs 124 crore in traffic challans in 2020. In 2019, the amount was around Rs 92 crore. Police said this was due to the newly implemented Motor Vehicle Act which increased the fine amount. Data shared by police shows that a total of 1.38 crore violations were reported last year as compared to 1.05 crore in 2019. Fatal accidents also reduced by 19% in 2020.