A spurt in crime cases reported in the State this year has exposed police slackness. There has been an increase in the number of crime cases, including kidnapping, rape, murder, burglary, cyber and other kinds of thefts in the State, especially in the plains districts. The figure is alarming as compared to that of last year.
A police headquarter report revealed that 154 murder cases were reported this year while the figure was 124 in 2013. Besides, 288 cases related to kidnapping of women and teen-aged girls, 37 dowry death cases, 210 rape cases happened this year. In 2013, 172 rape cases occurred. This year, the figure for vehicle thefts is 671 while it was 581 in 2013. The figure for burglary this year is 247 while it was 245 in 2013. While 16 dacoity cases occurred this year it was nine in 2013. This apart, 18 vehicle theft cases have been recorded this year.
On August 9 this year, the shootout outside Roorkee jail involving two gangs led by notorious Cheenu Pandit and Sunil Rathi that resulted in three deaths has exposed police slackness. lack of training for the armed policemen who were deputed in the jail to keep guard stopped them from opening fire on the criminals when they were on the shooting spree. Perplexed by the sudden turn of things, police were reduced to the predicament of seeing the criminals making good their escape, unhurt.
Another incident that is still festering the administration and police followed a few months later. The notorious gangster Amit Bhura, an aide of Rathi, had escaped from police custody while being taken to the court in Baghpat in connection with a murder case, giving the escorting personnel a slip on December 15. The armed criminals had sprinkled chilli power on policemen and looted police of two AK-47 rifles and one self-loading rifle (SlR) aside from securing the escape of Bhura from the escorting cops. With 16 days having passed since the daring escape, Uttarakhand police are still clueless about the contract killer’s whereabouts.
That police are hamstrung when things warrant them to be on their toes was exposed in the ghastly rape and murder of the seven-year-old girl in Haldwani in November this year. As regards the Pherupur (Haridwar) rape and murder case involving a 12- year -old girl that occurred last year, State police are still in the dark over the identity of the accused. The State Government had proposed to hand over the case to the CBI. However, the Central premier investigative agency declined to accept it. However, putting up a brave face, State Additional Director-General of Police (law and order) Ram Singh Meena claimed that save for a few cases, police have cracked most of them. As far as the pending cases are concerned, the teams are working hard to solve them.
The grim reality that has emerged in course of the probes of some recent cases is that the number of crime cases, including murder, cyber crimes, involving first-time criminals is alarmingly rising across the State. On the Facebook and other social networking sites, people, especially the youth, are disclosing their identities as well as other details apart from updating their day-to-day activities. This can account for the spurt in crimes being committed by the first-time criminals. Earlier, crimes were committed by seasoned criminals. Things were easier then as it was easy to have their antecedents judged. But now, things are proving difficult as the criminals are mostly greenhorns in the arena of crime. Police are perforce putting extra efforts to crack them.
ADGP Meena said in view of increasing involvement of outsiders in crimes, the district police heads have been directed to launch verification drives and complete cent per cent verification of the residents in their respective districts. He said, “We admit that verification of the residents, especially of those coming from other parts of the country, are not being rightly done by the police. Verification drives are being conducted from time to time. It is, however, a continuous process. local residents should co-operate with the police too in having the identities of their tenants verified at the local police stations.”
Critics opined that with migration, particularly of the unemployed, from States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Himachal Pradesh in four districts - Haridwar, Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital - going on unabated, dearth of verification drives is leading to an alarming spurt in crimes in Uttarakhand. Armed persons without license or having licences from other States keep moving around the plain districts under the nose of the police. It is clear that the fear of law has ceased to prove a deterrent for the criminals with the law-enforcing agencies not rising to the occasion, one of them said. People are of the view that Uttarakhand has turned into a thriving refuge of the hardened criminals. Moreover, with violence against minor girls and women spiraling across the State, police seem to have made it a habit to dish out assurances. But these prove mere sweet-sounding platitudes, shorn of the will to enforce them on the ground.