Srinagar, Feb 10: With a significant improvement in the overall law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the crimes which had taken a back seat during the last over three decades in J&K, are back in focus and investigations have been speeded up.
The maximum number of cases of crimes in the last two years was reported from Budgam followed by Baramulla, Srinagar, and Anantnag.
Pulwama, Awantipora, Kulgam, and Shopian reported less number of cases of crime.
Senior officials at J&K Police Headquarters said that due to law and order problems, the investigations and dealing of crime cases suffered.
“During the previous years, the personnel used to remain busy with the law and order situation and get less time to deal and investigate crimes,” senior officials said. “The significant improvement in law and order has paved the way for dealing and investigations of crime. Now the accused get arrested in a jiffy and challans are being produced in the court of law.”
The officials said that during the past over one and a half years, scores of cases of crime have been investigated and challaned in courts.
“Keeping in view the prevailing crime scenario in J&K, the J&K Police has changed strategies to instill fear among the anti-social elements and to prevent them from committing more crimes,” the officials said. “The disposal of crime cases by the courts is given more impetus as the appropriate punishment will have deterrence.”
Besides the Police Stations dealing with crime, the Crime Branch is investigating cases of heinous crimes while the Anti-Corruption Bureau is dealing with corruption.
As far as Kashmir province is concerned, officials said that maximum cases of crimes in the last about two years were reported from Budgam followed by Baramulla, Srinagar, and Anantnag.
Pulwama, Awantipora, Kulgam, and Shopian reported a lesser number of crime cases.
The overall crime graph in J&K increased by 24.6 percent in 2021 compared to the figures of 2019, while the cases of violent crimes declined marginally, the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) said in its latest report.
As against 25,408 cognisable crimes comprising 22,404 related to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 3004 involving Special and Local Laws (SLL) in 2019, the figure jumped to 31,675 in 2021, which included 27,447 IPC crimes and 4228 SLL crimes, the report said.
It said that the year 2020 recorded 28,911 cognisable crimes – 25,233 IPC and 3678 SLL ones.
The report said the crime rate registration per lakh population stood at 235.7 from 2019 to 2021, while the overall chargesheeting rate touched 81.4 percent.
However, the report said the violent crime incidents recorded a marginal decline with 3100 such incidents reported in 2019 against 3072 in 2021.
The year 2020 recorded a total of 2821 such cases and the chargesheet rate was 67.2 during this period.
The report said there were 136 cases of murder in 2021 against 149 in 2020, and 119 in 2019.
Of the 136 people murdered in J&K in 2021, 30 lost their lives due to extremism or insurgency, two to political reasons, one to honour killing, 10 to love affair, and three to illicit relationship, the report said.
