A woman raped in every 16 minutes in Bihar

Patna, Dec 29 (UNI) A woman is raped every 16 minutes and a murder takes place every 6 minutes, while a cognizable crime is recorded in every 5 minutes in Bihar.

The figure was revealed in the crime records compiled by Bihar Police for the first three quarters of 2006. In the previous year, a rape occurred every 22 minutes, a murder took place every 6.31 minutes while more than 12 cases of congnizable offences were recorded every hour.

Records further said that on an average 9100 cognizable offences, 276 murders, 83 dacoities, 213 kidnappings and 87 rapes were reported per month till September last.

The monthly average of crime record shows that the number of total cognizable crimes were 8731.5, murder-285, dacoity-99, kidnapping-206 and rape-81, in 2005.

Against alarmingly high crime records, the police arrested 12,084 criminals on an average every month in 2006 while the figure was 10,628 last year. The number of encounters between the police and criminals, however, declined from 12 in 2005 to 1.5 in the current year on an average in a month. More than three criminals died every month of 2005 in encounters with the police while the number of such deaths reduced to one each month if figures of first 10 months of 2006 are collated.

Monthly average seizure of illegal firearms(countrymade) was 246 in 2005 which increased to 251 in the current year. The number of bombs seized per month came down from 170 in the previous year to 33 during the current year. In 2005 six illegal gun making factories were busted every month on an average which reduced to three in 2006.

The conviction rate during the current year was quite impressive.

Altogether 5604 criminals were convicted by different courts till November this year in connection with 2734 cases.During the year,till November,death sentence by hanging was awarded to 11 criminals, life imprisonment to 1141 persons and jail terms of more than 10 years to 300 convicts. Another 4152 criminals were slapped jail terms below 10 years.

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