Several crimes reported from Dehradun and other parts of the State have revealed a chilling trend of school and college-going students, given to substances, perpetrating them. The crimes they are committing include murder, burglary, theft and chain snatching.
Such a trend assuming grim contours with passing time has left the State Government and society deeply worried. A blood-chilling incident of a boy in his teens, an alleged substance user, murdering his mother, has come to the fore on Sunday, deepening wrinkles of horror-tinged worry around the brow of the law-enforcers and the society as a whole.
In the recent past, a Class XII student was arrested for an abortive gold chain snatching attempt involving an elderly woman in Dehradun. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has sounded seriously concerned over such incidents happening thick and fast in the State. He termed the murder of a woman allegedly by her son as ‘horrendous’.
The boy, in the former case, had allegedly murdered his mother by hitting her on her head with a hammer. The wily substance user had tried to make the murder look a fallout of attempted burglary to shift the suspicion from himself.
Psychiatrists say that psycho- social disorder resulting from drug/liquor addiction may have influenced the boy to go for the crime the like of which very seldom occurs in Uttarakhand.
Doiwala police officer Sandeep Negi said that the accused had committed thefts in the locality in the past.State CM Rawat said as per statistics, such cases are rising in Khatima, Rishikesh, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar. He directed the authorities to take measures to stop recurrence of such crimes in the State. In addition to this, he stressed, every citizen must contribute his mite in freeing the youth from perilous addiction to drugs.
A Dehradun- based lady psychologist said that curiosity among the youths about drugs finally leads to addiction. “Things mostly begin with curiosity. later things turn grave as they get addicted and reach the point of no return,” she said.
She said that the people should help such addicts to get admitted to de-addiction centres. “Their duty is to be on their guard on the drug peddlers trading in the locality masquerading as street vendors,” she said.
Dehradun SSP Pushpak Jyoti said that they have been launching Nai Zindigi operation to treat and rehabilitate the drug-addicts in the district. “This aside, teams formed at police station levels are on their toes to stop sale of narcotics and drugs. We are trying to stop smuggling of the same from neighbouring districts too,” he said.
“Teams are going to educational institutions from time to time to motivate the youth to keep away from narcotics and drugs. They are being told how such a habit would destroy them in no time,” Jyoti added.
