Crimes against women up by 21% in AP; urban areas see higher offences

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh saw a 21% increase in crimes against women in 2021 compared to last year, said the director-general of police (DGP) Gautam Sawang on Tuesday. According to the data released by the state police, POCSO cases also went up.

The DGP released the annual crime report at Mangalagiri in Vijayawada.

"Highest crimes were reported in the urban areas of Vijayawada, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Prakasam, and East and West Godavari districts. Better access to the police, outreach programmes, and the Disha app are helping women come forward and report. Fifty-two per cent of women filed complaints during the Spandana programme. More cases will be registered in the coming days and we need to prepare for that," said the DGP.

According to Mr. Sawang, efficiency in criminal justice is getting better, with evidence-based policing. "We see more women coming forward to files complaints and using the Disha app to alert the police. It is because of more reporting that we see more cases being registered," he added.

FIR analytics 2021

According to the data, 17,736 cases of crimes against women were reported in 2021 in the state along with 21,880 bodily offences, 18,286 road accident cases, 13,994 property offences, 8,340 white-collar cases, and 46,891 other cases under IPC. A total of 36% of the FIRs were from the outreach programme such as Spandana, Disha, Police Seva, and Cyber Mithra.

Crimes against women

Cases of crimes against women, especially harassment increased by 21%. While the number of harassment cases was 6,319 in 2020, it rose to 9,418 in 2021. Similarly, cases under POCSO Act increased from 1,802 to 2,097. Harassment cases were seen more among families and cases under POCSO were seen in urban areas.

The conviction rate in the state also increased with 25 life sentence convictions in 2021 from the previous year's four-five life sentences. The average days of investigation dropped to 42 days from 119 days in 2019 and 102 days in 2020. A total of 715 zero FIRs were registered in the last three years, which include 59 in 2019, 338 in 2020, and 318 in 2021. A total of 75 rape cases and 1,061 sexual offence cases were charged within seven days.

The state has 10 dedicated public prosecutors, 10 POCSO courts, and 12 Mahila courts. The state police is planning one Mahila court in every district to try cases against women.

Disha app

Disha app has 97,41,943 downloads till now. Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy is aiming for one crore downloads by this year-end. According to the DGP, the Disha app is the highest and most-used government police mobile app in the country.

Operation Muskan

Under Operation Muskan, a total of 34,037 children (5,651 girls and 28,336 boys) were rescued from various locations in the state. Many children were counseled and handed over to their parents.

Spandana

Under the Spandana programme, a total of 1,63,33 petitions were received by the police and 40,404 FIRs were registered which is 25% of the total. Meanwhile, 96% of the cases were disposed of within seven days. These figures show improved policing, public interference, and transparency.

Operation Parivarthana

This programme is focused on destroying ganja cultivation which is seen mainly in the agency areas. So far, ganja in 7,226 acres have been destroyed which is worth Rs. 1,806.52 crore. A total of 2,762 cases have been booked and 6,792 accused have been arrested. The police seized 3.14 lakh kg ganja worth Rs. 3,14.5 crore.

"These Agency areas are mostly in Maoist areas and the Maoists have also been encouraging them for many reasons. However, never have the AP police seen so much quantity of ganja being seized than this year," said the DGP.

Technology innovation

Andhra Pradesh police ranked top in the country in the smart policing survey which was conducted by the Indian Police Foundation. Under the central monitoring system, every police station will soon be under CCTV surveillance. The AP police are the only in the country to go from Tier I to Tier III data center upgrade this year.

An MoU will soon be signed by the state police with the National Forensic Science University, Gujarat, for capacity building. The state police system will also go paperless by 2022. Also, all schools, colleges, and offices will have Cyber Kavach (cyber safe kiosk) for the safety of women.