BHUBANESWAR : The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report-2022 has revealed gaps in the safety and security of senior citizens as crimes against them have increased significantly in the last three years.
Sources said about 326 incidents of crimes against senior citizens were reported in 2020, 210 in 2021 and 551 in 2022. Out of the total crimes committed against elderly people last year, four were of murder and one was culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
While four elderly women were raped, three were assaulted in an attempt to outrage their modesty. Around 29 incidents of theft from elderly people, five robbery and one of extortion were reported in the state last year. The pending police investigation of crimes against senior citizens is also a cause of concern. In 2022, about 125 cases related to crimes against elderly people were pending from the previous year while 551 new cases were reported last year.
In 74 cases, police found out the cases registered on the complaints of the senior citizens were true but the investigation remained inconclusive due to insufficient evidence, untraced or no clue. Odisha Police also managed to file chargesheets of only 442 cases (2021 and 2022) last year.
Their counterparts in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh filed 1,560 and 1,602 chargesheets respectively, of cases registered on the complaints of the elderly people. What made things worse was trial of none of the cases could be completed in 2022. The number of cases pending trial at the end of last year stood at 2,057. The pendency rate stands at 100 per cent.