Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta on Monday said that the crime rate in the state has dropped from 366 cases per lakh population to 200 in 2022 due to several efforts taken by Assam Police.
Talking to reporters in Guwahati today, the DGP said that crimes against women had also come down drastically from 29,046 cases in 2021 to 12,034 cases in the last year.
The Assam DGP was joined in by the SPs of all districts of Assam and the press conference was organized based on directives from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to address the incidents of crimes in the last year.
DGP Mahanta said, “This is due to the setting up of Special Cells for Women in collaboration with the TATA Institute of Social Sciences, a coordinated approach by all stakeholders like Assam Police, Social Welfare Department, NGOs, Labour Department, Health and Education Department and due to capacity building and sensitization programmes for Assam Police.”
Moreover, crimes against children have come down from 5,282 cases to 4,306 cases in 2022. A similar drop was also witnessed in human trafficking cases that saw a decline from 203 cases to 36 cases in 2022, informed the Assam DGP.
In addition, the case pendency has also witnessed a decline from 95,994 pending cases at the end of 2021 to 58,908 cases in year ending on December 31.
DGP Mahanta said, “These actions have resulted in crime prevention and the number of cases reported has come down to 69,439 at the end of 2022 as against 1, 33,239 at the end of 2021. Further, the charge sheet percentage has also gone up to 48 percent in the year 2022 as against 39 percent in the previous year. The cyber crimes reported in the State have also come down to 1,781 cases as against 4,846 cases in the year 2021.
According to him, property related crimes also came drastically down from a total of 29,113 reported cases in the year 2021 by almost half to 14,381 in 2022. Also, only 85 cases of armed robbery were reported in the last year against 188 in 2021.
In terms of Assam Police’s extensive measures against drugs related crimes, DGP Mahanta said that a total of 2,878 cases under the NDPS Act had been registered, a sharp rise from 455 cases in 2018, 828 cases in 2019, 980 cases in 2020 and 2,271 cases in 2021.
During that period, Assam Police arrested a total of 4,691 drug traffickers and seized 112 kilograms of Heroin, 49,000 kilograms of cannabis, 52 lakh narcotic tablets, more that 21 lakh cough syrup bottles and 215 kilograms of opium in 2022.
He said, “Use of technology and forensics by Assam Police is now the focus area and lots of steps are being taken to use scientific aids in investigation and to set up new regional and mobile forensic science laboratories in various parts of the State along with upgradation of state FSL at Guwahati. Assam Police is following a two-pronged strategy of public friendly policing on the one hand and a no-nonsense approach towards the criminals on the other.”
Addressing the issue of terror operatives entering the state, the Assam DGP said that steps were being taken to ensure that it does not happen, adding that several terror modules have been busted across Assam.
DGP Mahanta said, “We have seen modus operandi in many placesThey enter the Madrassa as a Maulana and are trying to radicalize people.”
“We have even spoken to religious leaders to help us to find those kind of people. Even Muslim leaders are against radicalization and they are supporting the government in its fight against the terrorist activties in the state,” he added.
