Overall crime rate up in State by 4.4%, mainly due to 57% rise in Cyber Crimes: DGP

A 35% increase in white collar crimes too pushed the crime graph upward, says DGP at annual press briefing

The overall crime rate in Telangana State witnessed a spurt of 4.4% in year 2022 vis-a-vis year 2021. This spike in crime rate was due to the high incidence cyber crime which went up by 57% over the previous year, said Director General of Police (DGP) M. Mahender Reddy on Thursday.

Addressing the gathering at the customary year-end interactive meeting with media persons, the State police chief, who is superannuating in two days, said the 35% increase in white-collar offences too pushed the overall crime graph upward.

The crime against women too went up in year 2022 compared to year 2021 by 3.8%. The surge of 8% in dowry harassment cases and 40% in bigamy cases contributed to the overall rise in crime against women, Mr. Reddy said. Out of the 17,908 registered crimes against women, 2,126 were rapes.

In 2,117 cases of these sexual assaults, the accused were known to the victims. The accused were close family members, friends, lovers or colleagues in these cases. In nine cases of rape, the accused were completely strangers, the DGP said. Murders dipped from 871 in 2021 to 762 in 2022. An analysis of the motives behind the murders suggested that 26% of these killings were due to family disputes.

While 125 persons (17%) were killed due to sexual jealousy, 84 (11%) were murdered due to previous enmity. Eight persons were killed by hired assassins. This constituted one % of the total murders. Cases of murder for gain too came down from 93 in 2021 to 45 in 2022. This was reduction of 52%. In 60% of these cases, greediness of accused, ill-will of securing easy money and access to the victims’ resulted in commission of the killings. In the remaining 40% of cases, the accused were completely unknown to the victims.

Telangana police continued to strive to achieve the goal of making the State free of left-wing extremism and succeeded, Mr. Reddy said. The State level Integrated Command and Control Centre was a prestigious project of the Police department that can be used as single platform for the needs of multiple departments, he said.