While 75 cases of rape were reported in Hyderabad in 2012, they increased to 102 in 2013, and to 145 this year.
The introduction of the Nirbhaya Act appears to have left no impact on the mindsets of criminals who raped as many as 145 girls in the Hyderabad City Police limits in the current year.
There has been an alarming increase in the number of rape cases in the city compared to the last two years. While 75 cases of rape were reported in 2012, they increased to 102 in 2013, and to 145 this year.
Although other crimes against women like dowry murders are on the decline, crimes in the cyber space targeting women are on the rise.
There is a slight increase in the number of cases of dowry deaths, as 29 cases have been reported so far compared to 28 during the last year.
A total of 1,674 harassment cases have been registered this year compared to 2,238 cases in the previous year.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy disclosed these statistics during the annual press conference on Saturday.
He informed that the cyber-crime wing had registered 90 cases of uploading fake profiles of women onto the social media. Last year only 16 such cases had been reported. Similarly, the cases of stalking via SMS, email and calls had more than doubled from 46 in 2013 to 105 this year, he said.
There has also been a significant increase in the kidnapping cases in the city. As against 130 cases in 2013, the number of kidnappings has increased to 356 in 2014.
However, offences like murder for gain, murder, snatching, pseudo police, attention diversion crimes, automobile theft and other theft cases have decreased this year compared to the previous year. There were five cases of murder for gain, 103 murders, five culpable homicides, 10 dacoities, 52 robberies, 699 house burglaries, 3,649 ordinary thefts, 1,264 hurt cases, 2,377 cheatings, 107 criminal breach of trust cases and 54 rioting cases registered by the city police this year.
While 16,359 cases were registered in 2013, this year the number stood at 16,537, a marginal increase.
The Commissioner said that as against the sanctioned strength of 12,401 personnel, the present strength of the Hyderabad Police stood at 9,744, with 2,657 posts, or almost 21% of the posts, lying vacant.
Despite the shortage of staff, the city police had effectively handled bandobust for events like the General Elections and the Assembly sessions, and ensured the peaceful conduct of different festivals, the anniversaries of the Mecca Masjid blast and the Babri Masjid demolition, and VIP visits.
Mahender Reddy also presented an overview of the different initiatives being taken by the Hyderabad Police to ensure peace and maintain law and order in the twin cities.
When asked about an event to be held by right-wing organisations in connection with religious conversions, the Commissioner said he had no information about the proposed event. However, he said that the police would act as per the law to handle such cases.
He also denied reports of Hyderabad turning into a safe hub for terrorists, and said that a watch was being kept on all suspicious persons. (INN)