DGP K.V. Rajendranath Reddy releasing the Annual Crime Review-2022 at his office in Mangalagiri of Guntur district on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: G.N. Rao
Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a decline in crimes and law and order incidents such as murders, rioting, rape and SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act cases in 2022, said Director General of Police K.V. Rajendranath Reddy. He said several initiatives taken up by the police department were fruitful and the number of cases registered have came down by 18% from 2.84 lakh in 2021 to 2.31 lakh in 2022.
Addressing the annual press conference at Mangalagiri on Wednesday, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said that the number of rioting incidents and murders have come down as a result of the increased vigil on anti-social elements, visible policing and other proactive policing measures. In 2021, 945 cases of murder were registered while in 2022 the number stood at 857, he said, and added that a similar trend was witnessed with regard to incidents of rioting which came down to 442 this year from 564 last year.
He said that a total of 2.31 lakh cases were registered in 2022 while it was 2.84 lakh and 2.92 lakh cases in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Rape cases also saw a slight decline with 1,419 cases registered in 2022 against 1,456 cases last year, he said. “Crimes against SC/ST communities saw a decline. In 2022, 205 rape cases were registered while in 2021 and 2020, 231 and 156 cases were booked respectively. Also, under the SC/ST Act, 585 hurt cases were reported this year while 606 were reported last year,” Mr. Reddy said.
The DGP said that complaints of harassment lodged by women saw an increase thanks to the availability of the Disha app and other outreach programmes through which women were able to approach the police with their grievances. He said 11,895 cases of harassment against women were registered this year, while only 7,039 cases were lodged in 2020 and 10,373 in 2021.
“In the past three years, 1.11 crore people have registered themselves on the Disha SOS app and 25,554 actionable cases were filed, out of which 2,524 FIRs were registered,” Mr. Reddy said.
Also, due to increased use of social media, the number of cybercrime cases increased to 2,783 (2022) from 2,039 (2021). Most of the cybercrime cases are related to job frauds, loans and verbal abuse on social media platforms, he said.
Pending cases
There were 1.88 lakh cases under investigation (UI) at the end of 2021 and the number was brought down to 1.11 lakh by the end of 2022, Mr. Reddy said. Over 1.08 lakh pending trial cases and three lakh petty cases were settled through Lok Adalats with the help of police, he said.
A conviction rate of 70% was achieved in rape cases and POCSO Act cases and chargesheets were filed in 96% cases, he added.
“Over 2.45 lakh kg of ganja seized in the State was burnt and all the ganja farms in the Agency areas were destroyed. We will use satellite imagery to trace any leftover ganja farms in Agency areas. Police will now focus on putting an end to ganja smuggling in the State and on breaking the supply chain to colleges and schools. If other States also follow the A.P. model in eliminating ganja trade, South India will be freed of the ganja menace in the next two to three years,” Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said.
Coordinated investigations will be taken up with Central agencies to arrest all the absconding accused in ganja cases in the State, he added.
Regarding ID liquor trade, the DGP said that 2,344 families involved in ID liquor trade were identified and 1,300 of them were rehabilitated.