New Delhi, May 13: A 48-year-old chartered accountant was shot dead in northwest Delhi when he tried to resist a robbery bid in a crowded marketplace in Kanhaiyya Nagar on a busy Monday morning. The same day, bike-borne robbers snatched a trader’s bag containing money in Moti Nagar on his way to the bank.
A day later a finance agent was stabbed and robbed of cash in Shahadra in northeast Delhi. All these incidents took place on busy roads and the criminals, most of whom were on motorcycles, managed to give police a slip.
Only four months into the year and the city has already seen a spike in robbery cases. Though the Delhi Police started random checks and verification of motorcyclists last year it has not helped much.
The police claimed to have verified more than 2,050 motorcyclists everyday to keep street crimes under control. Compared to 192 cases of robbery reported till April in 2009, this year the number has already crossed 202.
Besides, 450 incidents of snatchings have been reported form various parts of the city. The police have blamed “first time criminals” for these crimes.
In Kanhaiyya Nagar incident, armed robbers on a motorcycle with “police” written on the registration plate shot dead Krishna Kant Bansal in a foiled robbery bid. The accused had come all the way from Bahadurgarh in Haryana without being detected or stopped at any checkpoint by the police.
“We have verified around 2.5 lakh motorcyclists this year. This has helped us keep a check on crimes committed by using motorcycles.
In many cases we have caught robbers and snatchers through these random checks,” said Rajan Bhagat, spokesman, Delhi Police. Delhi Police had also started a drive to secure areas around banks and ATMs in the city, especially on Mondays when many businesses deposit or withdraw their week’s earnings.
But several complaints have been made against the police for not registering cases or register cases under lighter sections to keep the crime graph low.
—-Agencies