New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) Delhi has been witnessing a steady rise in crimes over the last few months, particularly the use of firearms, leading to questions over the law and order situation in the national capital which is home to the entire political and administrative leadership.
There has been an increasing trend of guns being used by criminals and gangsters with impunity, including against the police.
Be it robbery, personal enmity or a suspected gang war, the use of firearms has gone up and as many as 375 such cases were registered in the national capital this year till June 15.
Even in the cases of snatching, the use of firearms is an emerging trend.
Commuters and office goers live in a state of fear as to when a snatcher would strike at them. And if they resist snatching, they may have to face bullets.
“We read about so many crime incidents. In fact, people are short tempered too. You never know who will brandish a gun and kill you, even if your vehicle brushes some other vehicle on the roads,” said Vipin Mehra, an engineer working in Okhla area of south Delhi.
He said if someone asks for your wallet at gun point, it is better to give in, rather than fight it out, as you could simply be shot.
Recently a woman was shot at early in the morning in Dwarka area of south west Delhi. The Delhi police arrested two contract killers in connection with the case.
A business man was also shot at in North Delhi’s Civil Lines area a week back.
Even though the Delhi Police is swift in making arrests in most cases, the question remains as to how easily guns are available and used, that too in the capital of the country.
“The (police) department has been working hard to make sure the cases involving firearms and other weapons are brought to the lowest,” a senior police officer told IANS.
The police have also gone after gangs supplying firearms from western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Madhya Pradesh, he said.
A police source told IANS that in the coming days, the operation will intensify as the teams have received strict orders to dismantle organised crime in the national capital.
The crackdown so far has led to recovery of 1,119 firearms, and 4,206 rounds of bullets of different bore from 1,262 individuals who have been arrested over the last six months, the police said.
On June 20, the police arrested two gun runners identified as Pawan Singh and Chandar Singh from Rohini and recovered 30 high quality semi-automatic pistols from them.
Three days prior to that, the police’s special cell recovered 30 automatic and country made pistols with 10 extra magazines of .32 bore pistols and 25 live ammunition of 315 bore. The special cell team also arrested an individual, who is said to be a resident of UP, and was operating from West Bengal to supply arms to criminals of Delhi and neighboring areas.
Defending the Delhi police, a senior officer of the department claimed that the number has seen decrease as compared to 2018.
“The number has decreased. So the force must be lauded. If you compare the number with 2018, the cases were 380, while in 2017 the number was 416,” said a senior police officer in the public relations department of the force.
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