Commentary/Rajiv Shukla

Bangalore is tops where crime is concerned

Although Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has created a special task force to control crime in Delhi and has expressed concern over the crime rate in the national capital, the irony is that Bangalore, capital of his home state, Karnataka, has the highest crime rate in the country.

According to a Delhi police presentation, quoting a Central Bureau of Investigation study as its source, the volume of crimes per hundred thousand people is highest in Bangalore and lowest in Delhi. Bangalore has 14, 011 crimes per 100,000 people, Calcutta has 4,172 crimes registered while Bombay and Madras have 1,879 and 1,568 respectively. Lucknow (1,454), Ahmedabad (991) and Delhi (601) follow.

The study makes some interesting revelations about 'heinous' crimes -- dacoity, murder, attempt to murder, robbery, rioingt, and kidnapping -- in these cities. Fortyone per cent of the accused in such cases are school dropouts while six per cent are students.

Belying the widely held notion that most heinous crimes are committed by those who live in the nation's shanty towns, the study reveals that 50 per cent of those who commit such crimes live in authorised housing colonies, five per cent in unauthorised colonies and two per cent in government flats! Only 20 per cent of the criminals live in slums.

As far as motive in murder cases are concerned the study reveals that only 17 per cent of murders in India's metropolitan cities are committed because of sudden provocation. Fifty per cent are instigated by old feuds, 13 per cent are crimes of passion and nine per cent killings take place during robberies.

The study has an interesting analysis of rape as well. Most rapes are committed by neighbours or by individuals of the victim's acquaintance. In Delhi, out of 254 rape cases registered in 1996, 124 were committed by neighbours, five by the victim's father, four by the stepfather, four by an uncle, two by a brother, one by a cousin, three by a nephew, one by a father-in-law, 10 by friends of the family, four by class fellows, five by employers, 54 by others known to the victim. In only 37 cases were the rapists unidentified.

Delhi police officers explain the neighbour phenomenon thus: Most of the girls, police officers say, fall in love with their neighbours. Compelled by their parents or when caught in flagrante delicto, the girls register a complaint of rape. The CBI study reveals that 76 per cent of rapes are committed at home.

There is a significant difference in the situation in Delhi and Bombay. In Bombay, most of the crimes are committed by the city's gangs; in Delhi, on the other hand, the underworld is not organised. The few gangs which operate in Delhi are based in the neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Before creating a task force in major Indian cities to control crime, I feel Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda should first improve the living and working conditions of Indian police officers and men. Indian policemen are ill-equipped, inadequately trained and poorly paid. How can a constable with a .303 rifle of World War II vintage confront criminals with AK-56 rifles and explosives? Our police stations have got lousy vehicles and the condition of our paramilitary forces is pathetic. I believe the prime minister should increase the salaries of India's police officers and men at least four fold before he sets out on the ambitious endeavour of reining in crime.