Delhi Police: Five women raped everyday in city last year

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Five women were raped and eight were molested everyday on an average in the national capital last year, Delhi Police said Wednesday. According to Delhi Police data, 2,043 cases of rapes were registered last year as compared to 2,059 cases the year before that and 2,065 cases in 2016. Last year, 3,175 cases of molestation were reported as compared to 3,275 cases the year before and 4,032 cases in 2016. In most of the rape cases, the accused were known to the victim, police said.

According to Delhi Police analysis, 43 per cent of the accused in rape cases were either friends or family friends, 16.25 per cent were neighbours, 12.04 per cent were relatives, 2.89 per cent were co-workers, 22.86 per cent were other known persons. A meagre 2.5 per cent of the accused were not known to the victim, police said, adding that this was a decline from the previous years. In 2017 and 2016, strangers comprised 3.36 and 3.57 per cent of those arrested for rape.

As many as 2,290 arrests were made in rape cases last year as compared to 2,275 in 2017 and 2,072 in 2018. Police have requested the Delhi government for improving last mile connectivity and also requested the Social Welfare Department for initiating programmes for awareness and education in slums and places recording higher incidents of crime against women.

Delhi Police has also requested the city government for installation of lights on dark stretches, including self-defence as part of school curriculum. As safety of women in the national capital continues to remain a cause of concern, police have laid emphasis on popularisation of 'Himmat Plus', creating gender sensitisation and mindset reformation as a part of 'Sashakti'.

Identification of dark stretches and sharing information with civic agencies is also on the fore. Some of the sensational rape cases reported from the national capital included the rape of an employee of a multinational company by two of her colleagues in southwest Delhi's Vasant Kunj in October and the rape of a visually-impaired woman by her neighbour in central Delhi's Deshbandhu Gupta Road area in May last year.

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