Nagpur: Painting a grim crime picture of Nagpur, the recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) placed Nagpur in the worst 10 cities reporting alarming number of murders within its limits. The report titled ‘Crime in India, 2014’, says that Nagpur comes at 10th rank in the terms of murder rate in the cities.
However, the murder rate per capita in Meerut is the second highest in the country after Bihar’s capital Patna. With 93 cases of murder and 98 victims in 2014, Meerut barely avoided the worst 10 list as it came in below Nagpur at number 11. In terms of the number of murders, Delhi was at the top of the table with 472 cases and 496 victims. However, the rate of murder in the national capital was much lower than Meerut, at 2.9.
Meerut had a murder rate of 6.5 for every lakh in population in 2014 as compared to 10.00 in Patna. Ranchi in Jharkhand was in third place with 5.4. Agra became the second city from western UP to find a place in the top five with a murder rate of 4.5. Data was collected from 53 cities in India, of which Kannur in Kerala had the lowest murder rate (0.1), followed by Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu (0.2).
A city based psychiatrist who preferred not to be named said that Nagpur is gradually losing its patience in terms of facing harsh realities of life. This often crosses boundaries and leads to serious crimes like murders and violent activities. “Most of the murders you notice would happen in a fit of rage and not planned. This means that the murders reported in city and rest parts of the country are mostly not cold blooded, but a momentary fallout that turned drastic. It’s high time the cops should exercise full control of the situation and the citizens should be more patient and calm towards sensitive issues,” he added.
Nikhil Mehta, a city based college professor posted at NITI Mumbai said that increasing murder rate in Nagpur is really a cause of concern, both for the Police department and all of us in our individual capacities.
A top cop in city police department on condition of anonymity viewed that development comes at its cost. “As the city expands, so will the criminals. Unemployment is also one of the leading factors behind such an alarming situation. The murder rate may be high in Nagpur, but it’s still a safer city for living if you compare with the cities in UP or Bihar. As far containing the crime is concerned, the citizens are also needed to be more alert, cautious and cooperative to police.”
