BENGALURU : The city witnessed slightly lesser heinous crimes, like murder and rapes, in 2021 as compared to last two years, while dacoity and chain snatching went up. According to data, 7,953 crimes reported in 2021, which was 7,449 in 2020.
City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant said on Friday that the law and order in 2021 was at its best with public cooperation and police action. Serious crimes and anti-social activities by history-sheeters were controlled and citizens felt Bengaluru was a safe city, he added.
The police kept an eye on habitual offenders who were operating criminal activities during imprisonment, while the drug menace too was brought under control as several drug peddlers were arrested across the city. Pant thanked the people for their cooperation during the death of Kannada film actor Puneeth Rajkumar and not giving way for untoward incidents. In 2021, 148 murders were committed, of which 146 were solved. In 2019, 199 and in 2020, 173 murders were reported. Last year, eight murders were for gain, while it was four in 2020. In both the years, all the cases were detected.
But chain snatching incidents saw an uptick in 2021 with 165 cases, while in 2020, 152 incidents were reported. Dacoity cases too went up to 35 last year, from 30 the previous year and 39 in 2019. There were 365 robberies in 2021, 378 in 2020 and 506 in 2019. Last year, 4,126 motor vehicle thefts were reported, of which only 915 were solved.
Vehicle thefts in 2020 were 3,797, of which 1,308 were detected.Thefts committed by domestic help workers increased from 134 in 2020 to 177 in 2021.