The overall crime rate in the city has decreased by almost 48% in the first seven months of this year, a noteworthy development that was reportedly sparked by strong law enforcement and public awareness. According to Guwahati Police Commissioner Harmeet Singh, there were 6236 incidents during the same period this year, down from 11,923 cases during the same period in 2021.
In this period, robberies in the city have fallen by 73 percent (from 515 to 135 cases), burglaries by 47 percent (from 704 cases last year to 368 cases this year), theft cases have declined by 41 percent (from 1698 cases to 1012 cases), and extortion cases have also declined by 51 percent (from 93 to 47).
The number of cheating instances has decreased as well, from 981 cases to 947 cases . Though there has been a significant increase in phone-based, Whatsapp-based, and email-based crimes this year compared to last, with 60% of the instances including cybercrime, he added.
The police official also noted that, despite a 23 percent increase in murder cases (from 30 to 37 this year), “approximately 90% of the killings were perpetrated by those within the victim’s social circle (among friends and family), a tendency that has been rather perplexing.”
Contrarily, the number of cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has increased by 17% (from 128 in the previous year to 151 in this year).
Singh further added that kidnapping cases have gone down by 33 percent (to 210 this year from 313 last year), rape to 39 cases from 41 cases last year, molestation to 83 cases from 187 last year and cases under section 498(A) of IPC/POSCO by 60 percent (from 555 to 225).
