VIBHA VERMA
The State’s capital city appears to be a safer place to live in this fiscal year. This is as per the statistics available with the Panjim Police Station that show a drop in crime rates and an increase in the rate of detection of crimes.
Records indicate no murder in the current year 2014-15, whereas out of three attempted murder cases reported till March 10, 2015, all were detected and the assailants arrested.
During the recently concluded Budget Session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had bragged of controlled crime cases in the current fiscal year as well as good detection rate comparing it with the previous year.
In the financial year April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, Panjim saw a total of 542 cases out of which 325 were detected and 160 chargesheeted. Comparatively, records from April 1, 2014 to March 10, 2015 reveal that 369 cases were reported during this period of which 239 were detected and 66 chargesheeted for different offences.
The crime chart further indicates that while one murder was reported in the financial year 2013-14, the current financial year – that ends on Tuesday – had no murder case reported. Similarly, no dacoity has been reported this year, though in the preceding financial year they numbered three.
There is, however, another side of the story. While the police station witnessed these improvements, the conviction rate has not been very impressive even as a majority of the cases are either pending trial in different courts or are yet to be chargesheeted. The year 2013-14 had four convictions and 22 acquittals, which is over five times more than the convictions. The current year recorded one conviction and one acquittal.
Burglaries and thefts were the most among crimes in both the years followed by cheating and kidnapping cases. The chart shows 136 thefts from April 1, 2014 to March 10, 2015 which was recorded at 203 in the last FY.
In terms of minor crimes like gambling, noise pollution and other offences, 2013-14 recorded 51 cases of which 49 were detected and 39 chargesheeted, whereas in the current year till March 10 there were 39 cases reported, 35 detected and 17 chargesheeted.
The similarity in both the years is that Gambling Act leads the chart of other offences with 31 and 23 cases respectively.
