VIJAYAWADA: In a significant development the crime rate in Vijayawada decreased by 12 percent in 2020. Crime cases decreased to 15 percent compared with 2018 and by 12 percent against 2019 while crime against women decreased by 11.9 percent. Vijayawada Police Commissioner B Srinivasulu presented the annual crime report of Vijayawada city on Sunday.
Later, addressing media persons, the commissioner said that 2020 passed without any major law and order incidents and also on the property front. He said that the major issue that the public encountered in the year was Covid-19 and Vijayawada City Police have done a commendable job in coordination with the front-line warriors.
Srinivasulu said that regarding reported cases, when compared with 2019, at 766 it is 12.05 percent lower. He said that during 2020, the percentage of detection of property crime is 69.7 percent under which the total property lost is valued at Rs12,16,93,226 while the recovery was Rs 9,58,62,724, which is 78.77%.
In cybercrime, cash worth Rs.3,48,04,295 was lost and Rs.1,26,85,901 was recovered which is 36.45 percent.
In crime against women, the percentage of reduction of cases when compared to 2019 was 11.97 percent.
Srinivasulu said that the first-of-its-kind Court Monitoring System (CMS) was established in Vijayawada City Police Commissionerate in 2004. After the introduction of the system, there was a quantum jump in the quality of police performance, which resulted in the overall improvement in conviction percentage. In 2019, the conviction percentage was 50% while it was 55 percent this year.
Meanwhile, the gang wars culture that vanished decades back, made a comeback in 2020. As many as 10 rowdy-sheeters were excommunicated from the city during 2020. Further 79 new rowdy sheets, six DC sheets, 26 KD sheets and 233 suspect sheets were opened in the year, he said.
On the ganja cases front, 75 cases were booked, 4,135 kgs of Ganja and 44 vehicles were seized and 166 persons were arrested and NDPS Act cases were filed against the accused. The total worth of the banned substance that was seized was Rs 1. 60 crore. A total of 160 gutka cases were booked, 226 persons arrested, cash to the tune of Rs 6.30 lakh was seized apart from 19 vehicles. The overall worth of the seized material was put at Rs 2.08 crore. 1231 cases were booked for liquor smuggling, 2,435 accused were arrested and 1,02,957 liquor bottles worth Rs 4.35 crore the first-of-its-kind.
Road accidents killed 264 in 2020 compared to 357 in 2019. The number of accidents dropped by 26 per cent due to the strict lockdown that was imposed.
Srinivasulu said that the police extended their support to the medical department and other departments for tracing thousands of primary and secondary contact persons and also helped to send Covid positive cases to quarantine centres.
