By IANS,
Chandigarh: The number of murders in the union territory of Chandigarh may have risen last year but it does not make the city lawless as the figures are much higher in other cities, police said here Sunday.
According to police statistics, the city recorded 22 murders in 2009 as against 17 in 2008, registering an increase of 29.41 per cent.
However, the police claimed that Chandigarh accounted for less number of murders as compared to other cities of the country.
“The murder rate in Chandigarh is 1.69 per lakh of population against three in Delhi, 8.9 in Patna, 6.2 in Faridabad, 4.7 in Lucknow, 4.3 in Bangalore, 3.4 in Pune and 3.3 in Vijayawada. No wonder, many cities are much more lawless as compared to Chandigarh,” said senior superintendent of police S.S. Srivastava.
“In Chandigarh, an inordinate proportion of the police force is, at most times, engaged in VVIP security. Despite these constraints, we are able to keep the crime graph under control,” Srivastava said.
“If there is an increase in murder cases, then at the same time there has been an increase in the work-out rate. Last year, we had solved 20 murder cases as compared to 14 in 2008, placing the work-out rate at 90.9 per cent in 2009 against 82.35 per cent in 2008,” he said.
Chandigarh also recorded a decrease of around 35 per cent in the registered cases of attempt to murder in 2009 as compared to 2008, the police officer said.
In 2009, 18 cases of attempt to murder were registered here against 28 in 2008.