PANAJI
There have been slight concerns about the effectiveness of the police in detecting and investigating certain types of crimes, particularly theft, burglary, and chain snatching amid claims of a high detection rate in the State.
The data from 2019 till date suggests that their performance in detecting these crimes, where women have been the victims, is not impressive as over 50 investigations are closed while around 47 are pending trial out of over 150 cases registered during this period.
As per figures in reply to a question tabled by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, 26 cases of thefts including house break-ins have remained undetected as against 24 detected whereas nine cases of burglaries were undetected and only three detected. In a marginal improvement in chain snatchings cases, 51 have been detected compared to 46 undetected.
One of the primary concerns is the recovery of stolen property. Despite police’s claims of making efforts to trace the accused, in many cases, the stolen property is not recovered. In some undetected theft cases, the police claimed, “Accused person was placed under arrest and interrogated but the stolen property was not recovered” while filing closure reports before the Court.
In other FIRs, remarks such as “All efforts proved futile and the case remained undetected,” “CCTV footages were verified, local intelligence was active, but no clue,” “Maximum efforts were made to detect the case.” “Enquiry is being conducted with the Ex-convicts, H/Sheeters (history sheeters) and suspected persons. So also watch is maintained through beat staff and Robot Staff.” “Efforts were made to trace the accused person, however, remained untraced,” etc were mentioned in the closure reports of undetected cases.
With several cases pending trial and under investigation, the department achieved around six convictions and four acquittals.
Goa has recorded the highest crime detection rate but at the same time, the crime graph has also seen a rise. However, for grave offenses such as rape, kidnapping and molestation; the department has achieved maximum detection.
