The year 2019 saw a rising and disturbing trend of violence against women and children in Guntur district.
The series of incidents involving minors towards the end of the year has raised disturbing questions on the social and moral fabric and prompted the police to take decisive action, and the barbaric rape and murder of 26-year-old veterinarian has spurred the Andhra Pradesh Government to enact the A.P. Disha Act-2019.
In Guntur Urban Police limits, 800 cases related to crime against women were reported, though a drop from 931 cases reported in the year 2018. The cases relating to outraging the modesty of women (354 IPC) have risen to 225 in 2019 from 219 in 2018.
Cases relating to violence against minors have come down to 78 in 2019 against 96 in 2018, but during the latter half of the year, a number of incidents were reported. In Nagarampalem, an 18-year-old boy allegedly molested a five-year-old girl and the incident sparked outrage.
In Guntur Rural, 819 cases were reported in 2019, a marginal decrease from 812 in 2018 and 892 in 2017. The number of cyber crimes also increased this year.
Murders continue to rattle this year too, and in Guntur Rural 65 cases were reported, out of which 57 cases were solved.
The number of road accidents have also increased and 285 deaths were reported in 2019 compared to 300 cases in 2018. In the year 2019, 797 cases were reported and 857 cases were reported in 2018.
Superintendent of Police, Guntur Urban, PHD Ramakrishna and SP, Guntur Rural, Ch. Vijaya Rao told reporters that the law and order situation had improved a lot but challenges remained on traffic management.
