NEW DELHI: There is another side to Delhi Police’s tall claims of reducing street crime in the capital. Delhi Police is either not registering cases or registering them under other crime heads. The story of creating the image of ‘less crime in Delhi’ has been prepared by registering robbery and snatching as theft.
According to the Delhi Police’s crime data, this year there was a drop in robbery and snatching cases, but there was a 50 per cent spurt in theft cases, which are other than house theft and motor vehicle theft.
Crime in Delhi can be judged by the fact that in 11 months in 2017, Delhi Police registered a case on an average of every two minutes. This year till November, police registered 2,13,151 cases, including rape, murder, kidnapping and theft.
Delhi Police didn’t register a case in which two bikers snatched a senior citizen’s phone in North-east Delhi on December 25 around 10.30 pm. When he approached the police, they advised him not to get involved in legal hassles.
In another snatching case, Delhi Police fooled a CRPF sub-inspector whose phone was snatched by three bikers in Mayur Vihar on October 25. While the FIR says his phone was snatched, the case was registered under theft.
In Janakpuri, two bikers snatched collection agent Naresh Kumar Gothwal’s wallet in Kamla Market this week. Instead of filing the case under snatching, Delhi Police registered it under theft.
When The Sunday Standard spoke to Station House Officers of police stations, they accepted that there is not truthful registration of cases like in the old days. “When B S Bassi was Commissioner of Delhi Police, we used to register cases on the basis of PCR calls as well.
There was strict instructions that nobody will register snatching and robbery in theft sections. But due to pressure, many cases have been registered as theft,” said a Station House Officer.