KOCHI: A few days back, a 38-year-old woman employee working in a plant nursery at Ambalamukku in the capital city was murdered in broad daylight. The attacker took away her gold necklace weighing around 4.5 sovereigns and Rs 25,000.
During investigation, it was found that the woman was murdered during the robbery attempt. After a five-day-long hunt, the police arrested the serial killer from Tamil Nadu who had been accused in other four murder cases.
As part of the ongoing Operation Dark Hunt against goonda activities under the Kerala Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act (Kappa), the Ernakulam Rural police arrested a 32-year-old man from Paravoor for robbery. Earlier, he was booked in a case of a woman’s abduction in the Mannar police station limits in Alappuzha and a theft case at Perumpetty in Pathanamthitta.
The Ernakulam police also said in a statement that the accused had been booked for various cases in the past five years including attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft, cheating, destruction of public property, and also cases under the Arms Act.
According to the data compiled by the State Crime Records Bureau, 337 murder cases were registered in the state last year, which is the highest in the last five years. Most of the murders last year had happened during theft and robbery, fight between alcoholics, political conflicts, and killing under the influence of drugs.
The statistics with the bureau also revealed that there was a significant increase in robbery cases last year from the previous two years. In 2019 and 2020, 741 and 610 robbery cases were registered in the state, respectively, while 793 such incidents happened last year.
Kochi City Police Commissioner C Nagaraju said, “There was a spike in murder cases last year when compared to previous years. Property cases which include killing a person during theft or robbery also increased after the pandemic. These happened when people’s movements started again after restrictions were eased. Several gangs from villages from other states have started coming to the state and have been involved in property cases.”
In the wake of increasing murders, a meeting was recently called by the department with various residents’ associations in the city. Even online awareness programmes are being held by station house officers in Kochi to make them aware of the presence of these gangs and inform us if they happen to find suspicious activities in their localities.
Night patrolling has also been strengthened and a drive called ‘Stranger Checking’ has been launched by the department. Under this, checks are being carried out in lodges and details of people coming for work from other cities are continuously being monitored to avoid such crimes,” added the commissioner.
However, the crime records data also suggested that the criminal cases had come down as compared to previous year. In 2020, 1,49,099 cases were registered in the state while 1,45,495 cases were registered last year. “The number of crimes came down in the district as compared to previous years,” said Sparjan Kumar, Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner.
