Despite CM’s claims, increase in crimes against women in city

Times of India: Nagpur: Sunday, 03 January 2016.

Even as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis strongly defended Nagpur as a safe city, statistics obtained under RTI reveal epict a contrasting picture, particularly in crimes against women. There is quantum jump in molestation and rape cases from January to November 2015 as compared to same period in 2014.

About 369 incidents of molestation took place in comparison to 254 in 2014. Similarly, rape cases witness rise from 95 in 2014 to 153 in 2015, in same period.

Additionally, there is rise in cases of robbery, motor vehicles (MV) thefts, cheating and other minor thefts, thus belying the CM's claims. The reduction is only in cases of murder, attempt to murder, chain snatching and housebreaking thefts (HBTs). The robbery cases increased by 16, motor vehicles thefts by 9, cheating by 43 and other thefts by 85.

Interestingly, the detection rate for murders and attempt to murder are at 95% and 99% respectively, but dismal in chain snatching (33%), house breaking thefts (HBTs) (25%), motor vehicles thefts (22%) and others thefts (30%) in 2015.

The only solace is detection rate has been improved in comparison to 2014. In 2015, about 5,252 cases of all crimes were registered of which 2,109 were detected. In 2014, 5,033 cases were registered and 1,842 were detected. There is a rise of 219 offences and of 276 detections in 2015 as compared to 2014, as per the reply submitted by Nagpur Police Commissionerate to RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar.

While speaking during a debate on law and order situation in assembly on December 23, Fadnavis strongly refuted the opposition's allegations of Nagpur being turned into crime capital of Maharashtra ever since BJP led government assumed power in October 2014. He even went on to say that Congress and NCP were against development of Vidarbha and therefore portraying the city in bad taste.

He charged the opposition of always neglecting the region and had ulterior motives to deter investors by falsely painting a wrong picture of Nagpur being a crime capital. "Criticize me for anything, but don't defame the city, just because it's my hometown," he had said, while reading out figures of crime detection in the House.

Fadnavis however had admitted that crimes against women were on rise while all other offences had shown a decline. He attributed registration of jump in number of crimes against women to amendment carried out in Section 376 of Indian Penal Code after Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi.