Almost 99 per cent rapes in Delhi are committed by people known to the victim. Records available with the Delhi Police show that 46 per cent are fully known to the victim like family and friends, 14 per cent are relatives, 11 per cent are neighbours, 28 per cent are other known persons, one per cent is employers or co-workers.
Only one per cent of the accused in rape cases is complete strangers. In 2016, 3.57 per cent cases of rape in the capital city were committed by complete strangers, which has declined steadily in the last five years.
The latest figures were shared by newly appoined Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Wednesday during a free-wheeling interaction at the Indian Women Press Corps in Delhi.
While women safety can never be guaranteed unless people around them in close vicinity like friends, relatives and partners and colleagues start respecting their space in society, quick police action can certainly be a deterrent.
“Earlier the police response time (of Police Control Room) was 7-8 minutes. Now it has reduced to 3 minutes and seven seconds,” he said. Asthana said this is a significant step in ensuring that the police are on the crime spot immediately after an SOS is received.
In the 2012 Nirbhaya case, an inquiry into police lapses had found that the PCR response could have been swifter. The need to shorten the response time was high on the agenda of Asthana when he joined as commisisoner four months ago.
The PCR, which has a strength of 6,500 personnel, has been merged with the police stations.
“By doing this the human resources and vehicle strength in a police station has gone up,” he said. It has definitely strengthened beat patrolling while the number of policemen at police stations at any given time has increased, he said.
The City Police is trying to sensitise policemen to be more sensitive in their approach when a victim approaches a police station with a complaint.
“The beat constables and the investigating officer, are all undergoing soft skills training,” he said. Asthana said the crux of effective policing is prevention and detection of crime. “This is why the focus is not only on strengthening beat policing but also on delineating law and order and investigations”.
“Law and order has been made separate from investigation. Earlier there were complaints by citizens when they visited a police station that they could not find the inspector who would investigate the case. Now one team of investigation is always present at any police station,” he said.
While Asthana has ensured that there is full strength of inspectors in all police stations, the dream of having 33 per cent women in the police force is still a far cry.
Presently, 13 per cent of the force consists of women. This includes six women DCPs, eight ACPs and nine SHOs deployed in areas anticipating more crimes against women.
But there is hope as Asthana assured that by 2025, Delhi Police will be able to achieve the target.
Meanwhile, the commissioner said that the farmers’ agitation in the national capital will not be allowed to disturb the law and order even as peaceful protests are being allowed at Jantar mantar.
Asthana is trying to maintain the fine balance between democratic rights of citizens and ensuring no laws are broken which has been a challenge for his predecessors.
The latest challenge for the Delhi Police, however, is cyber threats and sophisticated tools being used on social media that has no geographical boundaries.
“Each district has cyber crime police stations now. Recently, we have trained 7,000 policemen in our specialised cyber crime unit CyPAD,” said Asthana.
The Delhi Police is also working closely with the Integrated Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (IC4) under the Ministry of Home Affairs where citizens can directly report a cyber fraud or crime and help in immediate registration of FIR.
To ensure that the complaints received by the IC4 directly reach the Delhi Police, the police cyber cells are being directly connected to the central number. The merger will be one of the first, paving the way for IC4 to link up cyber cells in district and regions across the country.
On the complaint filed by BJP MP Gautam Gambhir claiming he and his family received threat from ISIS Kashmir, Asthana said investigation into the complaint is underway and security has been provided to the former cricketer.
While Delhi Police has courted controversies in the past, like in the Delhi riots case, for slapping charges against some of the accused who got bail later as those charges could not be substantiated in court, Asthana said the police is unbiased and conducting fair investigations. He pointed out that the matters are sub judice.
However, when it came to Delhi Police being too strict about enforcing wearing masks in cars during the pandemic, Asthana pointed out that those checking masks may be civil defence volunteers who are mistaken as traffic policemen.
