HYDERABAD: It’s good news for Hyderabadis as far as crimes are concerned this year. The crime rate in the city of pearls dropped by 10 per cent in 2020, said Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar. He said that 22,641 cases were registered this year as against 25,187 in 2019. The city witnessed a biggest drop in POCSO cases with a 35 percent reduction compared to the last year, followed by a 27 percent reduction in property crimes, 26 percent in bodily offences and 19 percent in crime against women.
In an international survey, Hyderabad has emerged as number one in the country in the installation of CCTV cameras. “No city in India has these many CCTVs. At present, there are 3,61,000 cameras in Hyderabad, which is more than any city in India that helped in reducing the crime rate and solving the cases,” the CP said. The CP said that 367 boys were rescued and 200 girls were rescued under Operation Smile and Muskan. With the effective implementation of road safety measures, the city saw a dip in road accidents with 237 persons being killed as against 271 in 2019.
Anjani Kumar said, “New York and Hyderabad both are the same in terms of population and area. Both have 1.3 crore population and 700 sq km but in 2020 New York witnessed 310 murders whereas Hyderabad has seen only 64 murders. The crime rate is even higher in London. If we prevent smaller crimes, the bigger crimes will be automatically controlled.”
But with the usage of Internet increasing significantly in the backdrop of Covid-19 and lockdown, the number of cybercrime cases registered in Hyderabad went up from 1,400 cases registered in 2019 to 2,500 cases registered this year.
From the last week of March, the number of users falling prey to financial frauds and social media stalking cases has gone up. The number of criminal cases registered for various cyber crimes that took place in the city has gone up in the last three years and officials expect it to go up further in the coming years.
“This year, new crimes such as organised online gambling done by Chinese firms, instant finance apps have come to light. The cases registered with regard to other conventional cyber crimes like duping online users by offering different financial schemes and misusing social media has gone up. This has happened mainly due to an increase in usage of the Internet during and after lockdown,” Sikha Goel, Addl. CP crimes and SIT said. After busting a Chinese online gambling racket, four people were arrested—including a Chinese national, who continues to be behind the bars as an under trial.