Unlit streets, power cuts embolden criminals

NEW DELHI, September 6: The Delhi Police have requested the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) chairman to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the...

NEW DELHI, September 6: The Delhi Police have requested the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) chairman to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the Capital in the wake of the worsening law-and-order situation. DCP (North) S.N. Srivastava has reportedly told DVB chairman Virender Singh that load-shedding and unlit streets has emboldened criminals. Crime Branch Chief Brijesh Kumar Gupta is learnt to have asked the nine police districts for a report on crime (snatching, robberies, car thefts and crime against women) at night, especially when there is no electricity in the area.

Crime Branch sources, collecting the data in the north district, have divulged a few details: Of every nine road holdups on the main road, eight take place after sundown and of 13 road holdups in the side-lanes, nine take take place at night.

“And not just road holdups. Of the five cases of robbery registered by the north district police, four took place after dark. We are still compiling information but there is a trend that is emerging,” says a crime branch official.

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Load-shedding with a regular pattern hits policing, say officials. Says Satyendra Garg, DCP (north-west): “An industrialist was murdered in his steel plate factory in the Wazirpur Industrial Area on August 3. The DVB resorts to routine load-shedding there between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. We suspect robbery was the motive when armed intruders taking advantage of the darkness, slipped into the factory and killed the owner while robbing him. We have to live with load-shedding. So the police are advising industrialists and residents to light up their neighbourhoods for safety.”

The police fear that if the power situation does not improve, the situation could take a turn for the worse during moonless nights. While patrolling in south Delhi three nights ago, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) south district P.K. Srivastava had reportedly expressed apprehension about the situation and had ordered the police control room (PCR) staff to ask the DVB to get lights back on the streets. “There was no electricity in Safdarjung Enclave, Safdarjung Development Area, Green Park and Hauz Khas,” a south district PCR official said.

The police theory is that if the streets are well lit and if residents too switch on a light outside their houses, robberies and crime against women can be curbed to some extent.

However, this theory does not have many takers in the DVB. Says spokesman Jagdish Kapoor: “It is the job of the police to stop theft. Then why do they not stop power theft?” he asks. Another board official asks: “Do the police mean to say that there are no road hold-ups during the day or are women safe on Delhi’s streets during the day? It is just that we get very little co-operation from them in checking power theft. When we cut illegal power lines and residents of the area intimidate us, we seldom have their full support,” he says.