This year, 75% crimes unsolved in Thane

THANE: Only one in four incidents of theft, robbery and burglary is solved by the Thane police, taking the detection rate of property crimes registered between January and September 2011 to an all-time low of 25% this year.
The evidence of dismal detection in street crimes and house-breakings is on display on the web page of the Thane city police, where of the total 3,214 incidents of theft, robbery and burglaries reported in the last nine months, a poor 806 are said to have been detected.
Rising incidents of thefts remain the biggest concern for Thaneites as out of 2,290 cases reported in the last nine months, just about 506 have been detected, while of the 788 incidents of burglaries, a mere 213 have been detected. "Any person considering a robbery or theft will be emboldened to do the crime, as three out of every four times he can get away scot free. All this is due to the proven inability of the Thane police to track down the offenders and ensure their conviction,'' said
Janak Vyas, a resident of Kopri, Thane (E), who heads an NGO Dnyan Jyoti Vidyarthi Sangh, said among the increasing pile of unsolved crimes at the Thane police officials' desk is one concerning his wife who was a victim of chain-snatching in a train near Dombvili about ten years ago.
"Till date, I am waiting to get news about the arrest of the criminals and neither have I got my lost chain back. It is crucial for any police force to tackle such crimes forecefully and within a time-bound manner as these incidents not only affect the victim but create an environment of fear and cause panic among citizens,'' Vyas said.
More recently, the daylight robbery of over Rs 26 lakhs from the residence of an elderly woman, Gulabai Jain, at Tembhi Naka continues to remain a mystery for the Thane police a week after the incident.While sketches of the two accused are being circulated, there has not been any breakthrough in the case, it is learnt
The chink in the armour of the Thane police was exposed with another robbery at the Bhiwandi residence of Congress MP Suresh Tawre on Saturday. . In both the cases the charges have been registered against two unidentified person but little headway seems to have been made in either of the cases.
A section of the senior police officials point an accusing finger at the citizens' failure to ensure safety measures and needlessly keeping large amounts of cash and jewellery at home. The police get the whip for any theft, robbery or chain-snatching. However, no one is willing to point out the irresponsibility of the victims who invite trouble by keeping valuables and large amount of cash at home or by walking on lonely streets wearing heavy jewellery. Unless, people avoid such exhibitionism such incidents will continue and finally crime is a reflection of the social strive in the society,'' a senior police inspector told TOI.
Admitting that crime detection has suffered in recent times, a senior police officer said it is largely due to shortage of manpower and increasing burden of day-to-day work. bandobast duties etc leaves little time for the police to do their core duty of crime detection and prevention.
Statistics show that incidents of property crimes have been rising steadily in the last two years, but almost every year 60% of the cases of thefts, robbery and burglaries go undetected. Of the 4,317 cases of theft, robbery and burglaries reported in 2010, a mere 1,724 or 40% were detected.
Ditto in the year before that, when 1,648 cases were detected of the 3,969 registered, indicating that 60% crimes went unsolved.
YEAR Property crime cases Detected Detection %
2009---- 3969 -----1648------ 41 %
2010------ 4317 ------1724------ 40%
2011*------ 3214 ------806------ 25%
* Figures are for cases registered during Jan-September 2011