Cyberabad records drop in crime, but sees a spurt in cyber crime

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Raveendra along with senior officers releasing the annual report-2022 at Cyberabad Police Commissionerate in Hyderabad on Friday.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The crime rate across the board in the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate limits saw a drop as compared to last year by as much as 12%, but there was a spurt in cyber crimes by 25.84%.

Cyberabad Commissioner of Police Stephen M Raveendra on Friday laid before the media the performance and crime statistics across zones and verticals.

The number of first information reports registered in 2022 stood at 27,322 as against last year’s 30,954, reflecting a reduction in the overall crime rate by 12%

While highlighting the drop in the percentage, Mr Raveendra also underscored that property offences had steeply declined by 28%. He laid emphasis night house burglary cases which saw drop of 33.51%. On the other hand, the detection of property offence cases rose by 14.6%, he said. According to data, while over ₹24.10 crore was lost to such cases, a recovery of more than ₹15 crore was made, raising the recovery rate to 10.20%.

Mr Raveendra also pointed out that crimes against women dropped by 8.34%, as did crimes against the weaker sections of society, which include the SC and ST communities, which dropped by 19.80%

In the case of bodily offences which include — murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, rioting, and rape cases — saw a downward trend. However, culpable homicide cases saw a significant increase spike of 33.33%. Mr Raveendra said that a new tool which uses latest technology, the pilot of which began in July, saw investigation hours reduced from 1,700 to 400.

While most parameters saw a downward trend, cyber crime rose by 25.84% with as many as 4,850 cases being reported as against 3,854 cases last year. Cases under this category include advertisement, phishing, loan, investment, customer care, job, matrimonial, dating, trading frauds. However, the number of accused persons arrested rose sharply to 2,924 as against 707 last year. Interestingly, while cheating cases increased by 14.99%, a large number of these cases are cyber frauds.

Data shows that as many as 57,175 drunk driving cases were booked. Police sent 979 people to jail and as many as 32,238 driving licences were sent for suspension.

There was a marginal drop in fatal road accidents. Out of 415 deaths reported in connection with road accidents involving two-wheelers, a vast majority were not wearing helmets. As many as 338 two-wheeler drivers and 77 pillion riders lost their lives. Data shows that only 44 persons were wearing helmets.