J&K crime rate up by 5 pc in 2016, crimes against women drops

Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a five per cent increase in overall registration of criminal cases in 2016 but the crimes against women dropped by nearly 18 per cent during the same period, according to data released by the police today.
"There has been an increased trend in the registration of crime cases last year with 26,548 cases being lodged as compared to 25,269 cases in 2015, marking a five per cent increase," a police spokesman said.
He said the incidents related to crime against women decreased last year to 2,920 cases as compared to 3,539 cases in 2015.
"As many as 805 cases of kidnapping were reported in 2016 compared to 1,152 in 2015," he said.

The number of rape cases also came down from 315 in 2015 to 275 cases last year, the spokesman said, adding there was also a decrease in eve-teasing cases from 215 in 2015 to 157 in 2016.
"Molestation cases also decreased from 1,342 in 2015 to 1,233 in 2016," he said.

The spokesman said there was also a decrease in the disposal of cases by the police during last year as only 23,692 cases were disposed off compared to 26,891 cases in 2015.
The recovery percentage of stolen property in 2016 increased by 5.88 per cent to 43.49 per cent against 37.61 per cent the previous year, he said.

The spokesman said the state-level crime figures were taken from the annual edition of crime gazette for the year 2016 which was released by Director General of Police S P Vaid here today.
Addressing the senior officers, Vaid said there is an urgent need for creation of a section exclusively devoted to research and development needs of the police department.
"There is a need to re-orient some sections of the department so as to provide better services to the people," he said.