Crime against women on rise in J&K: Pawar

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept11: Taking serious note of the unprecedented increase in crime against women in Jammu and Kashmir, J&K Mahila Congress president and former MLA Indu Pawar today expressed her anguish over Saturday’s inhuman incident in the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu.
“Shockingly, such inhuman and shameful incidents are occurring regularly in Jammu and Kashmir and law enforcing agencies are still in deep slumber”, Pawar regretted.
She pointed out that two days ago a minor girl was sexually assaulted in Kashmir Valley and now another shameful incident happened in GMC Jammu.
“Such incidents must stopped because we are living in a civilized society”, she said and appealed to the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha to ensure exemplary punishment to those involved in committing such a heinous crime.
Quoting the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), she regretted that crime against women in Jammu and Kashmir recorded an increase of 15.62 per cent in 2021 compared to the preceding year, with over 7,000 people being arrested.
She further regretted that the conviction rate remained low as only 95 people were awarded sentences, while cases under investigation touched 6,275 by the end of last year. These include 2,329 cases pending investigation from 2020 and nine cases that reopened for investigation, the report said.
Pawar said crimes against women marked a steady rise from 2019 to 2021, with the highest 3,937 such cases reported in 2021 against 3,405 cases in 2020. In 2019, there were 3,069 such cases.