CHENNAI: While concerns are being raised about the state of law and order in Tamil Nadu, especially in terms of the number of murders, the official statistics obtained by TNIE from Tamil Nadu police show that there has been a 7% drop in the number of murder cases registered in Tamil Nadu in 2024 as compared to the previous year.
The data show that from 1,598 murder cases in 2023, the number dropped to 1,489 in 2024. A declining trend is visible from a high of 1,745 murder cases registered in 2019. While the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) have published data only till 2022, the statistics for 2023 and 2024 are based on the official data shared by the TN police.
A senior police official said the drop in murders is the outcome of a detailed strategy and action plan to monitor history-sheeters (HS, also referred to as “rowdies” by the police) to curb the number of targeted killings in the state.
The strategy has five broad features — updating HS profiles to monitor and probe the notorious ones; constituting a rowdy-monitoring team, headed by a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer in every zone/city for targeted surveillance; tracking legal cases of rowdies to get convictions and preparing a list of hostile rowdies and rival gangs to track and avoid law and order situations.
The activities of 550 “highly-active” rowdies are monitored closely by the Organised Crime Intelligence Unit (OCIU), which is reviewed weekly by the DGP/HoPF. DGP Shankar Jiwal said that specific operations like Drive Against Rowdy Elements (DARE) are undertaken to ensure that public peace and order are not affected.
Decrease in murders indicates decline in crime rate: DGP
“This has paid rich dividends and caused a drop in murders. As murders are seen as an indication of crime rate, a decrease in murders also indicates a decline in crime rate. This perceptible drop has brought the crime rate of TN below national level,” DGP Shankar Jiwal told TNIE.
Besides, the police have also initiated financial investigations against rowdies, looking into their assets and sources of income and attaching them to cripple their resources. Such probes have been initiated against 91 rowdies.
Deputy commissioners of police in cities and additional superintendents of police in districts have been instructed to expedite court hearings of pending cases against rowdies and ensure bail cancellations of rowdies if bail conditions are violated. Sixty-five such cancellation orders have been obtained in the last six months, said an official.
From a citizen perspective, activists expect better efforts from the police and the political establishment regarding murders in certain cases. Jayaram Venkatesan of NGO Arappor Iyakkam cited the recent murders of the Pudukkottai anti-quarrying activist Jagabar Ali and that of two youngsters allegedly by illicit liquor vendors in Mayiladuthurai district, indicating that the government needs to act against the illegal activities to prevent such crimes.
Executive Director of human rights organisation People’s Watch Henri Tiphagne alleged such data on crime should not be analysed in isolation and claimed that there is a law and order problem in the state. He demanded that the 2006 Prakash Singh judgment of the Supreme Court on police reforms be implemented in totality and all police officers in the state in supervisory roles get a fixed tenure of two years.
