Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
EVEN as the city fights a pitched battle against novel coronavirus (Covid-19), it has recorded a positive news on another front. There is a drastic reduction in crime cases in the last two months. As against 134 crimes reported in last week of January, Nagpur witnessed just 39 crimes during the lockdown period of last week of March as the criminals are also scared of the deadly coronavirus.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Joint CP) Ravindra Kadam said that the substantial drop in the crime was result of stricter implementation of lockdown. “The criminals are not even daring to come out from the home as the police have blocked the movement of vehicles,” Kadam said.
Statistics of crime reported at Nagpur from January 24 to 31 and March 24 to 31 of Nagpur Police show huge drop in theft cases during lockdown period enforced by the government to contain spread of the virus.
Total crime dropped by 70.89 per cent during the lockdown as compared to January last week. As against 53 theft cases in January, the city reported just nine theft cases during the lockdown period. Similarly, burglary cases also reduced to six in March last week as against 11 cases in January last week. As against six robberies, the city reported just one robbery case during lockdown while cases of crime against women reduced to three from six.
Importantly, murder cases have not shown any sign of abatement with one case each reported in the last week of both months. However, not a single attempt to murder case was reported.
Other Indian Penal Code (IPC) crime cases also saw substantial drop, the data says. A total of 54 other IPC cases were reported in the last week of January while the city saw drop of 68.51 per cent by registering 54 cases after lockdown.
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