VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district has witnessed a 10 per cent decline in the overall crime rate, including crimes against women, property offences, bodily offences, road accidents and white collar offences this year, while the increase in enforcement cases such as seizure of gutka, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS), PDS rice, liquor and sand seizures continue to be a cause for concern.
Presenting the crime analysis for 2020 during the annual press conference at the District Police Office at Machilipatnam on Tuesday, SP M Ravindranath Babu said that total number of crimes reported this year were 8,877 as against 9,765 in 2019. The crimes against women have dropped from 2,724 cases last year to 2,489 in 2020. Attempt to murder cases have dropped to 256 in 2020 from 316 in 2019. While 1,284 rape cases were reported this year as compared to 1,435 last year.
However, there is a sharp rise in the enforcement cases—777 cases were reported this year as against 609 in 2019, followed by 44 NDPS cases as against 27 in last year, 149 PDS rice seizures compared to 78 in 2019, 6,011 prohibition excise cases as against 365 in the last year and 397 sand seizures compared to 272 in the previous year.
Referring to the enforcement drive conducted by the department, the SP informed that in 2020, 397 cases were registered as against 869 persons held for illegal transportation of sand. Nearly 571 vehicles and 5,350 tonnes of sand was seized.
More than 578.040 gm of ganja worth `17.02 lakh was seized this year. Forty-four cases were registered and 141 persons were arrested for possession of the contraband. Also 37 vehicles were seized from the possession of the accused.
As far as illegal transportation of liquor is concerned, 6,011 cases were registered against 8,962 violators under Excise Act and 2,828 vehicles were confiscated. As many as 2,76,885 liquor and beer bottles and 9,181 litres of ID liquor worth `5.51 crore was seized. This year, 777 cases were registered as against 1,129 for illegal transportation of 40.15 lakh gutka sachets worth `3.3 crore. This apart, 110 vehicles were seized at the special check-posts set up at various parts of the district.
Compared to 2019, robbery cases decreased by 45 per cent, grievous hurt by 45 per cent, simple hurt cases by 12 per cent, murder by 34 per cent, theft by 22 per cent, house break-in cases Night by 47 per cent, house break-in cases Day by 32 per cent, kidnapping cases by 16 per cent, rape cases by 14 per cent, fatal road accidents by 18 per cent and non-fatal road accidents decreased by 37 cases.
‘No Accident Day’ is observed thrice a week with staff in accident-prone areas and black spots, which has yielded desired results. Under Operation Muskaan, a total of 1,410 children were rescued this year, of which 1,072 are boys and 338 are girls. The District Police Office, Disha police station and Chillakalapudi police station have been awarded ISO 9001-2015 certification.