ISLAMABAD: The capital police on Friday claimed that it has attained the highest ratio of case registration over property crime in the country.

A spokesman for the police said it was also the all-time highest ratio of case registration in the capital.

From January 1 to April 30, the registration of dacoity and robbery cases in the capital was recorded at 85pc and 87pc, respectively, he said, adding during the same period in 2021 the registration of such cases was only 17pc.

During these four months, 22 cases of dacoities and 821 cases of robberies were registered against 26 and 945 complaints lodged with the police, the spokesman said.

Likewise, 205 cases of vehicle theft and 776 cases of motorcycle thefts were registered against 221 and 809 complaints from January 1 to April 30, 2022. He said the percentage of vehicle and motorcycle thefts cases were 93pc and 96pc compared to 17pc in the corresponding period of the previous year.

He said that 7,154 complaints were lodged with the police over crime against property in 2021. However, only 1,550 cases were registered against these complaints from Jan 1 to Dec 8, 2022, showing a percentage of 16.07.

“After change in the command of the capital police on December 8, the newly-appointed officers got registered 5,085 cases, including 1,718 dacoity/robbery, 116 burglary, 538 theft, 356 vehicle theft and 2,357 motorcycle theft cases against 5,604 ignored complaints of 2021,” the spokesman said. Out of the total, 519 complaints are still pending and action will be taken over them soon.

The police registered FIRs against complaints under section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code). Under the section, every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence if given orally to an officer in-charge of a police station shall be reduced to writing by him or under his direction.”

A police officer told Dawn that the police were duty bound to register a case against each and every complaint lodged with them. However, in practice, the in-charges of police stations do not register cases under the directives of senior officers to show a decrease in crime, he added.

Due to non-registration of cases, criminals go unpunished and are not arrested. Besides, chances of recovery of the looted valuables of the citizens diminish, the officer said.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2022