Crime against women rises in Mumbai; conviction rate low at 8 percent

Mumbai, Nov 26: Crime against women, including rape, molestation and chain snatching, have risen sharply in the metropolis in 2013-14, while conviction rate of serious offences fell to an abysmal low of 8%, showed a report complied by an NGO.

A sharp ascent is recorded in number of crime against women, with number of rape cases escalating to 432 from 294 in 2013-14 (a 47 per cent rise), while molestation cases rose by 52% (from 793 to 1,209), according to data gathered through RTI for financial year 2013-14, which was released here today by Mumbai-based NGO Praja Foundation.

While security of women remains a serious concern,

department has been facing acute manpower crunch over the last many years. Incidences of chain snatching too shot up to 2,110, which is 66 per cent higher compared to last year.

Among other crimes, theft cases were up by 19% to 6,644 cases, while housebreaking and rioting cases too saw an increase of 17 and 8% to 3,012 cases and 387 cases, respectively.

"Victims may have been coming forward and lodging complaints without any fear and hence there may be a rise in reported cases at the 92 police stations across the city, but such crimes must be curbed," founder trustee of the NGO, Nitai Mehta said.

Tasked to protect a population of over two crore people, Mumbai police continues to grapple with less number of head-counts. As many as 4,484 posts (11%) remains vacant as against its sanctioned strength of 41,643 as on July, 2014.

Strength of middle-level officers such as assistant police inspectors (APIs) and police sub-inspectors (PSIs), who primarily investigate cases, is also very less, the review said.

"There are 880 APIs instead of 1,047 sanctioned, and 2,024 PSIs while 3,254 posts are sanctioned. PSIs and APIs are the ones who are actually trained to probe crimes," Mehta said.

PTI