VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh stood third in the country in recovering lost property with a recovery rate of 53.7 per cent against 47.6 in 2019, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)-2020 report. Uttarakhand and Telangana topped the list with 57.4 and 56.3 per cent recovery of the lost property.
According to the NCRB report, as many as 14,384 cases of offense on property such as thefts, burglary, robbery, extortion and blackmailing, dacoity, attempt to dacoity, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and dealing in stolen property reported in the State in 2020 and the lost property is worth Rs 115.9 crore.
Of the total property lost, police recovered Rs 62.2 crore worth property, which is 53.7 per cent, and handed them over to the victims. The NCRB further says most of the offenses related to property occurred in residential places followed by roadways, commercial establishments, banks, ATMs, religious places, trains, railway premises and private offices.
Interestingly, Andhra Pradesh saw an impressive improvement in recovery rate for the past two years with an average 5 per cent increase in recovery.“It was 47.6 in 2019 and 44.4 in 2018. With the usage of technology, the AP police created a record in tracing offenders in less than two months on an average,” said a senior officer from police headquarters.
On the other hand, the State topped the list for the second consecutive year in annual Finger Prints India (FPI) report for developing chance prints from the crime scenes and thus helping the investigation agencies identify the accused.In addition, police solved 412 cases using the developed chance prints, which is third in the country.
“Though the department, which plays a crucial role in collecting minute evidence from the crime scenes, was understaffed with just 53 officials against its sanctioned strength of 104, it achieved the feat of standing first in technology usage. Now, the vacancies have been filled and the new recruits are undergoing training,” G Palaraju, DIG Technical Wing, told TNIE.