Coronavirus upside: 70% fall in crime in western Uttar Pradesh in April, says report

Western Uttar Pradesh has reported a sharp fall in crime in April compared to the corresponding period last year.

Crime in Uttar Pradesh: There has been a sharp decline in crime in the western part of Uttar Pradesh in the month of April compared to the corresponding period last year, a report in The Indian Express said, citing UP Police’s Meerut Zone. It said that crime fell by 70% in the region. Police have attributed this fall to policing and lockdown restrictions.

It said the region recorded 35 murders in the last month against 50 in the same month in 2019. Robberies went down to 114 from 992. There were 16 cases of kidnappings against 110 and seven cases of rape compared to 34 last year.

The information was shared by Additional Director General of Police (Meerut Zone) Prashant Kumar during a meeting of top cops across the country.

“Increased and systematic policing during the lockdown along with limited movement of people helped in reduction of crime,” he said.

He also said the mass influx of migrants in the last two months had been peaceful and no incidents of violence have been reported.

The meeting was organised by the Bureau of Police & Research Development (BPR&D), a think tank of the Home Ministry. It was attended by Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood, Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta and Bhubhaneswar CP Sudhanshu Sarangi to discuss policing during the time of the lockdown.

Kumar said there is no denying that the police force has been overworked for the last 10 months. He said there has been constant deployment of cops since August when Article 370 was scrapped, Ram Mandir verdict was delivered in November and anti-CAA protests.

“In this case, it was important to develop a comprehensive SOP for the lockdown strategy with effective Covid prevention measures. For morale boosting, senior officers engaged in conversation with other officers irrespective of their ranks to ensure that duties are carried out properly,” he said.

The administrative zone of Meerut includes Baghpat, Meerut, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar and Ghaziabad. These districts have recorded 1,163 positive coronavirus cases.

According to Kumar, 1,581 Tablighi Jamaat members including 180 foreigne nationals who had attended the Nizamuddin Markaz congregation in March had been identified in the region.