By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district has witnessed a 34 per cent rise in crimes against women this year by recording 1,651 cases compared to 1,229 cases last year. The district observed an overall increase in crime rate by 18 per cent with 24,862 cases.

Presenting the annual district crime statistics before the media on Thursday here at Vijayawada, district SP Siddharth Kaushal said the district police have topped in the state for the outstanding work in cracking down the illicit trafficking as a part of the state government’s brainchild programme ‘Abolishment of Alcohol’. He added that they stood first in various initiatives such as Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO), Investigation Tracking System for SC/ST cases, E-office, Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) and Mobile Security Check Device (MSCD) among others. According to the crime statistics, while the district has recorded a total of 24,862 cases against 20,911 in the previous year, the district police have filed chargesheets for 27,396 cases pertaining to the present year and pending from the previous year. 

“At a rate of 75 chargesheets per day, the district police have created a record and disposed off the cases to courts for further process. Additionally, we successfully reduced the time taken to file a chargesheet from 68 days to 34 days in 2021. It became possible with the help of technology,” Siddhartha Kaushal said. 

He also appreciated the efforts of the officials for keeping the district first in the State in terms of conviction rate, average time to file chargesheet, days taken for investigation and lost property recovery. Kaushal attributed the increase in the number of crimes against women to the ‘free registration of FIRs’ and various outreach programmes initiated by the district police. The SP said a total of 2,974 persons were arrested in such cases and 1,503 chargesheets were filed.