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Demonetisation crushes crime
From a situation where a number of burglaries and hundreds of cases booked for traffic violations made headlines regularly, the city’s seedy underbelly is lying low, as no one, not even criminals have any use for the expired currency
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Thanks to demonetisation, the crime rate in Chennai which has been sky rocketing, has nose-dived by 60 per cent in November, post denmonetisation. The burglars and chain-snatchers seem to have taken a long break as there is no money kept at homes and gold cannot be converted to cash, due to the currency crunch.
Meanwhile, police attribute the reduction in crime rate to the innovative methods they have adopted to improve the existing patrolling system. All the beat patrolling teams have been provided with a list of criminals in Chennai city, area-wise, as well as the modus operandi of their crimes. However, sources said the major reason behind the reduction in crime rate has been the demonetisation.
“Nobody has cash in their house. We had some cases of burglary and chain-snatching immediately after the demonetisation where the burglars only targeted gold ornaments. However, soon that also stopped, probably because they could not encash their booty,” a senior police official said.
There is hardly any burglary or chain-snatching cases reported in November. There are no major robbery attempts on financial institutions. Police say this could also be due to the increased police protection given to financial institutions following demonetisation. “Houses have no cash and only banks were the place where money was available. But the burglars could not target banks due to the stepped up police vigil at banks and ATMs,” the police official added.
According to sources in Sowcarpet and nearby areas, where most of the stolen gold used to be sold or pawned, jewellers are not in a position to purchase gold. “Full cash has to be paid when such purchases are made. Nobody has new currency in abundance and whatever is available is needed for the regular business. So nobody is purchasing anything,” a jeweller based in Purasaiwalkam said.
While the criminals have been forced to go without work, policemen are also having a tough time due to demonetisation. The ‘extra perks’ for policemen have come down drastically as people are not paying bribes due to the cash crunch. Many roadside vendors have stopped paying the daily mamool to the local cops due to shortage in small denomination notes.
Business houses have also stopped paying cops and with the currency situation. “Policemen also do not insist on bribes as they know the situation is bad,” a shop owner based in Pondy Bazaar said.
The billed revenue for the police department through penalty for traffic violations has also gone down, by over 70 per cent. “We are not booking cases widely now, considering the difficulties of the public. We did not issue any challans for one week after the demonetisation move. We have since started issuing challans but it’s quite rare,” a senior traffic official said.
He said even when the traffic violators are booked for offences, the police is not insisting on immediate fine. “We ask them to pay the amount later and they take their time to pay the fine,” the official added. When a motorist is booked for multiple offences, police see whether he is in a position to pay or reduce the number of charges to suit the availability of cash. “Most of the violations are now let- off with a warning. No motorist has Rs 100 currency notes and most of our common offences are billed for Rs 100. So the traffic policemen have been told to go slow on violators,” the official added.
CRIME DOESN’T PAY
- 60% reduction in crimes this month in Chennai.
- Over 70 per cent reduction in revenue from traffic penalties.
- Over 80 per cent reduction in number of penalty challans being issued a day.
- Nearly 1,000 helmet rule violation cases were booked a day prior to demonetisation.
- Over 50 per cent reduction in bribes to policemen.
- There are 14,500 criminals recorded in the city.
- 400 used to be the average drunken driving cases registered in a week by police.
- 6 chain snatching cases were the daily average in the city before November 8.
- Thieves forced to sit idle as they are unable to encash stolen booty.
- Jewellers stop buying stolen gold due to cash crunch.
- Few houses have new notes and burglars have no use for old currency.
- Rs 96,000 worth old currency notes left untouched recently during a burglary.
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