New criminals enter the scene in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: A large number of new criminals entered the crime scene last year in Telangana and AP. Most of these new criminals started off their ‘career’ with thefts and chain-snatching.

The National Crime Records Bureau says that 90 per cent of the criminals arrested by the Telangana police last year were first timers. 83 per cent of those booked last year by the AP police also belonged to this category. Senior police officials said that habitual criminal behaviour had come down in Telangana due to the reformation drives of the police, the prison department and the PD Act.

NCRB said that 1,06,023 new criminals entered the scene in Telangana last year and AP had over 1,23,577 new offenders. Chain-snatching cases were one of the most frequent offences reported in Telangana last year. Police said the vast majority of snatchers were newcomers. Similarly in offenses like thefts, burglaries, sexual harassment, cyber crime, assault, drug cases and financial scams most of the offenders were first timers.

The police has not yet succeeded in formulating effective steps to stop the formation of new criminal gangs. There is also a significant number of students who take to chain-snatching and thefts for leading lavish lives.

Meanwhile, in AP 16.3 per cent of the criminals were old hands. 221 criminals, who were imprisoned three times, came out and committed new crimes last year.
In Hyderabad, the police has been running rehab programmes to reduce habitual crimes and it has proved effective. Last year, 35-year-old Marineni Raju, who was involved in around 100 chain- snatching cases, was helped by the Cyberabad police when he came out of prison.  Police opened a tea stall for him to provide him a source of livelihood.

Police approach criminals after checking jail records. They counsel them along with their families and most criminals are ready to turn a new leaf. The Telangana prison department has also started rehab programmes for ex-convicts.