Lockdown puts criminals out of action
BHUBANESWAR: With the entire State under lockdown and people staying home amid the coronavirus pandemic, where have the criminals gone? Well, there is not an empty house to target, nor a man on the street to snatch valuables from. What’s more, more police presence on the vacant roads appears to be giving criminals a sense of new fear of not being able to escape.
To cut it short, crime numbers have dropped sharply. Busy police stations like Saheed Nagar, Khandagiri, Nayapalli and Chandrasekharpur in the Capital which used to register a minimum of three cases on a day have recorded only three cases each between March 23 and 29. “Of the three cases we registered, one was related to lockdown violation and another, to selling of illicit liquor,” an officer of Saheed Nagar police station said. Between March 23 and 29, Khandagiri police station registered 13 cases, including four for lockdown violation and three for illicit liquor sale. No incident of theft or snatching has been reported.
Nayapalli Police Station remains buys because it has under jurisdiction a huge slum population which reports a steady number of criminal cases. In last seven days, no crime has been reported from Nayapalli police jurisdiction. Chandrasekharpur police too has not registered a single case for cognisable offence in last seven days.
A senior Crime Branch officer said, most cases registered across the State in the last five days are related to violation of COVID-19 regulations and guidelines. “Offences like theft, snatching and robbery have drastically dropped in the State,” he added, attributing the decline to people staying in their homes.
The number of road accidents and vehicle thefts is close to nil as there is very less number of vehicles on the road and more police presence which means no rash driving and mishaps.