Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) As speakers at a consultation spoke about the spiralling number of crime cases against women in Delhi, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Goel surprised many when he said that the claim is “not supported by statistics”.Armed with figures and slide shows, Goel started his presentation Friday with a single line: “Rising crime in Delhi against women is not supported by statistics.”

“From the year 2001 to 2010, the population in Delhi has increased considerably, but the crime graph has been steady. If you see over a six year period, in 2005 there were 658 rape cases reported, which came down to 507 in 2010. This was slightly higher than 2009, but lower than the previous years,” he said.

Goel went on to say that the rate of conviction in Delhi in cases of sexual harassment of women - 27.7 percent- is better than the all India figure.

“I did a search and found that the rape figure per one lakh population in Delhi was lower than most other well developed cities in the world like New York,” he added.

Even as there was a chorus of protests in response, with most saying that the figures which are being talked about are just the reported crimes and that a lot of cases go unreported everyday, Goel said that the Delhi Police has taken several initiatives to encourage women to approach police when in need.

“We have women help desks in police stations so that women find it easier to approach the police to lodge a complaint. In Delhi University we started having women staff in the PCR vans and in the Maurice Nagar police station, 90 percent of the staff is women,” he said.

The women helpline, 1091, Goel further said, was a big hit.

“The women helpline 1091 is a big hit and we have been getting a big response. There is a separate PCR van for that helpline and a dedicated mobile team, other than the normal van. The Anti-Obscenity Cell which was started in 2009 has received more than 10,000 complaints till now,” he said.

“The Anti-Stalking Cell which was started last year has received 40 complaints until now. We want that to become more popular because physically stalking someone can often lead to serious crimes and acting on it before-hand can help prevent a crime,” Goel added.