Hyderabad: Telangana recorded a 4.6 percent increase in the overall crime rate, in 2021, as cybercrimes witnessed a two-fold increase in the total number of cases, said Director General of Police, Mahendra Reddy, on Friday.
The DGP said that during the year 2021, 8828 cases of cybercrime were reported out of which 5833 are major offenses and 1191 cases of online fraud impersonation have been registered.
The state witnessed a slight increase in the total number of crimes however the DGP said that the conviction rate for crimes committed has also increased to 50.03 percent, with one death penalty and 12 life imprisonments, awarded in 83 cases.
Crime Trends in Telangana
The annual crime report of the Telangana state police reflects that the number of crimes in the state surpassed last year’s records. 180497 cases were recorded in 2021 as compared to 172469 in 2020.
Out of 838 cases of murder recorded in the year, 95 cases occurred due to collateral damage, by hired contract killers and previous enmity, whereas the rest were due to property land and family disputes. It was observed that in cases of murders for gains, 55 percent of the victims were acquainted with the accused.
Out of 389 cases of Homicide, 159 cases were registered for fatal road accidents which were committed by drunken drivers.
in 2021, 19248 incidents of road accidents were reported wherein 6690 people died and 18316 people were injured.
As many as 1218 kidnappings took place in the year, of which 74 percent of kidnappings were committed for marriage (Love & Illicit relationships) or else were registered as cases of missing children as per the Supreme Court guidelines. Whereas kidnapping for ransom accounted only for one percent (9), of the total number of cases.
1870 cases were registered under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Out of 851,644 CCTV cameras that have been installed across the state,186,568 cameras have been installed this year and have helped in detecting 22781 cases.
Crimes against women
Even though Telangana has attempted to improve women’s safety measures, 17058 cases of Crime against Women, were registered during the year 2021, of which 2382 cases accounted for rape, 33 for dowry murders, 160 for dowry deaths, and 8429 for dowry harassment cases.
199 women were murdered for various reasons and 4476 cases of intent to outrage the modesty of women were reported.
1655 rapes were committed under the pretext of marriage whereas 450 cases of rape were committed by neighbours, co-workers, or employers. 250 cases of rape registered, were committed by relatives and other family members, and 41 cases were committed by friends, of the victims. Only 25 of those convicted of rape in 16 cases were given life imprisonment.
Eve teasing accounted for 5803 cases out of 480052 petty cases registered by the state police.
NDPS Act
A total of 1233 cases were registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2021, after the state police took a tough stand on drug trafficking by issuing clear guidelines in an attempt to make the state drug-free.
1207 cases of Ganja were registered, as 50015 kilograms of Ganja and Ganja plants were seized. A total of 2753 accused, under the NDPS Act, were arrested during the year.
Cyber Crimes
The Cyber Crimes department recorded 8828 cases out of which 66 percent (5833) were registered under major offenses such as fake customer care fraud, advertisement portal fraud, job frauds, loan frauds, and bank-related frauds. The remaining cases are related to online impersonation frauds, cyberstalking, phishing, and obscene content, etc,.
The DGP of the state informed that with the help of the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) as many as 25,000 fraud cases were detected across the state within a period of six months.
He also reported that the time for Emergency Response Management has been reduced to 7 minutes in 2021, from 10 minutes in 2019.
(SM Bilal also contributed to this report)