March 28^th 2013 11:21 Hrs:
Office of the Joint Commissioner of Police, Chennai

“Now I introduce to you the head for Southern region, Mr. Tarun, Additional Superintendent of Police.”

When Ranjith announced his name, Tarun joined the other heads.

Mr. Ajit Singh, ASP, Western Region.
Mrs. Sruthi Choudhury, ASP, Eastern Region.
Mr. Prateek Agarwal, ASP, Northern Region.

“Thank you all for joining. Now I hand over it to Mr. Arpit Kumar, DIG, Central to continue.” – Ranjith.

11:37 Hrs:

“Good Morning all of you. Thanks for joining on such a short notice. I personally thank every state for collectively coming out with a representative for each region. I hope the region heads will collaboratively work with each state in their region to sort this out. Before we come to the main agenda of the meet, let us hear the major happenings in our country in various states. I request each region head to take over one by one. We shall start from the Eastern region.” – Arpit Kumar.

12:01 Hrs:

“Thank you sir. When it comes to the Eastern region, the major problems are gang wars, riots and kidnapping. In the first two months of this year, major cases were filed against riots and kidnapping for ransom. The entire police department has been split up in areas where these activities are highly noticed. Apart from these, there are 225 murder cases and 75 rape cases registered in Feb-2013 alone. The positive part is that this data is comparatively less than all these years. But, still the entire department is doing the best to control them to as less a possible and of course completely neutralizing them is our ultimate aim. Above all these things, we have political issues which are actually becoming a major problem in every state. In the eastern region, we have to make a special note on West Bengal. This state, which accounts for 7.5% of country’s population, has double the share in the % of crimes. An overall 47000 cases were filed in various categories during 2012 to 2013. Out of which major cases are the crime against women. We don’t need to specially talk about the politics of this state. It takes years if we start discussing about all of them. With this, I would like to hand it over to Mr. Ajit Singh, Western region.” – Mrs. Sruthi Choudhury, ASP, Eastern Region.

12:26 Hrs:

“Thank you Sruthi. Out of all the states in Western region, we need to have a special note on Gujarat. It has become a common saying in this state that the assembly is more like a cell. Out of 100 MLA’s, 1/3^rd are having criminal records in various categories. A total of 134 out of 183 MLA’s are millionaires. There are 31 MLA’s who have not filed their Income Tax. The point to notice is that only 45% of MLA’s are graduates. Average assets of MLA are drastically increased from 2 crores in 2007 to 7 crores in 2013. There is much more to be read in the analysis report done by Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-political group aiming at governmental and electoral reforms. Next come’s Maharashtra. While the capital city Mumbai is being attacked continuously by terrorists where hundreds of people were being killed, the other parts of Maharashtra are witnessing suicides of thousands of farmers. The recent survey states that around 1 Lakh farmers might have committed suicide since 1997. Mumbai has always been centric for terror attacks. Train bombings, bombings in crowded places and the one in 2008 is the attack for the first of its kind where 10 people somehow managed to come in to our country through the sea wave and took the lives of 300 people, injuring 200+ people and damaging property worth millions. Now, I request Mr. Prateek of Northern region to take over. Thank you.” – Mr. Ajit Singh, ASP, Western Region.

12:58 Hrs:

“Thank you Ajit. When coming to the Northern part, we already knew about the Jammu and Kashmir issue which actually falls under the Defense. But, that is some or the other way impacting the whole country because of the continuous disturbances in the border line. If we talk about the crime, I am actually felling shameful to say that in a country ruled by a political party where a Women is the head and a state where a Women is the CM, Delhi is witnessing the most rape cases when compared to rest of the country. Each day, some or the other type of case is filed where women are being harassed. Though there was a dip in street crime like snatching and vehicle theft cases, heinous crimes were on the rise in the capital last year. The number of cases reported in the capital rose to 54,287 from 53,353 in 2011. It was 51,292 in 2010. Delhi is on a rising trajectory for the fourth consecutive year registering a 1.75 per cent increase in 2012, a year which also witnessed a whopping 23.43 per cent increase in rape cases including the horrific gang rape of a paramedic student in a moving bus. Rape cases rose from 572 in 2011 to 706 last year while molestation cases rose to 727 last year from 657 in 2011. Seventy-five cases of molestation were reported in the last 15 days of December 2012. Apart from all these, the most shameful things is that , even the small children of age between 5 and 10 were also being attacked.” – Mr. Prateek Agarwal, ASP, Northern Region.

13:29 Hrs:

“Thank you Prateek. Let me quickly explain about the crime and associated cases in Southern region. First comes the Andhra region where Hyderabad plays a key role here. Apart from the cases against women harassment, there is lot more on the cyber-crime. Cyber-crime cases, especially the Nigerian frauds, phishing and transmission of obscene content in electronic form has seen a rise in the state and also witnessed a two-fold increase in the arrest of cyber offenders in 2011. As far as now, there are 242 cases that were referred to Cyber Cell of Visakhapatnam police in the last 3 years. The regional politics is one another major problem where the talks on dividing the state are on high in the last 3 years. The next is Karnataka where scams of large scale are coming out to light where thousands of crores are account less. We don’t need to specially mention about the Bangalore cases against women. If it comes to Kerala, the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures comparing incidents of crime with the population of a state, notes Kerala is most affected by crime and Kochi is the most dangerous city. Figures compiled till 2010 show that Kerala has a crime rate of 424.1, more than double the national average of 187.6. The same statistics also gives information regarding Tamil Nadu. Of the 2,41,986 incidents of violent crime in the country, Tamil Nadu accounted for 12,333, more than much larger states like Rajasthan. The most special thing in this state is that, of the 677 cases of rape reported in Tamil Nadu in 2011, 675 victims knew the perpetrators, according to statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau. Only two women were sexually assaulted by strangers. And also the murder cases are being consistent at 1500 per year in the last 5 years.” – Mr. Tarun, ASP, Southern region.

14:01 Hrs:

“Sir, so, out of all these things which we have to work on where the crime rate is pumping up at rocket speeds every year, do you really think it’s a good move to work on the report that we have received 5 days back from the respective authorities?” – Tarun questioned everyone in the room.

“Before I respond to this, let me brief you once again. Last Saturday, we have received a report from a department regarding 2 incidents which they believe are planned. As we all know that even though we own the power to control the crime, law and order in the country, we are always controlled by the white dressed people. Now, after hearing all the various challenges each region is facing, I am not understanding on how to react and how to move on with the report we have received. If the victims of the incidents are any other people except that category, then it becomes valid if we put an extra effort to sort that out. And yes Tarun, your point is valid. But, do you really think we could by pass this report and proceed on with our currents tasks? I don’t think so we could do that. Our hands are always tightened up and so we have to look into this case in detail and probably look at providing extra security.” – Mr. Arpit Kumar.

Everyone in the room remained silent upon hearing that from Arpit. They were not able to digest the fact that the center is asking them to provide extra security so as to stop those incidents from happening. Each of them has some thoughts and points in their mind. But were not letting them come out to the table. But, Tarun moved a step further.

“Sir, so, you say that we need to provide extra security to them so that those kinds of accidents won’t happen? How can you say that sir? I mean there are hundreds of other things which need high attention and also we don’t have a clear analysis report that they are planned accidents. I don’t mean to question you back sir. But, I somehow feel that it’s not a right decision to provide extra security personnel to stand with guns for those kind of people?” –Tarun.

14:33 Hrs:

“Tarun. Calm down. Control yourself. Let the center do the decision taking. We are bound to work as per the instructions.” – Ranjith was trying to calm down Tarun.

When he figured out that Tarun lost control, he called out for a Lunch break.

“I know it’s not a right thing to call out. But, as we have long day to go, lets break it here for a lunch session and then we shall re-assemble at 15:30 Hrs.” – Ranjith.

When everyone walked out of the room, Ranjith came to Tarun and started talking with him.

“Tarun. You have to control yourself. You are addressing representatives from the center and you have to post your opinions in a calm manner rather than this way. I know you are aggressive and committed. But, you have to be in control in these kinds of situations.” – Ranjith

“Sir. I am under control. What they are talking is about providing extra security to the cold blooded criminals which I think is not right decision.” – Tarun spoke out of anger.

¿¿¿: Cold blooded criminals.

#Crime Everywhere