Covid effect: Heinous crimes dip, cyber fraud up in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Crime in the time of Covid had a lesser sting for the city than the year earlier. The patrolling of the capital’s roads to enforce pandemic regulations appeared to have kept street crime and crimes against women in check. However, perhaps because of the online dependence for most activities during the period, cybercrime saw a relative spurt. These trends were revealed on Wednesday when the National Crime Records Bureau statistics for 2020 were released.

Cases of rape reported by women dipped by 21% in Delhi in 2020 in comparison with the previous year. The overall crimes against women in Delhi went down by 24%. Cybercrime, however, saw a significant rise of 55% in the city.