City police maintain that the increase in statistics is because of free registration of FIRs and a few other reasons such as personal enmity or trivial issues.
Raman Gupta, additional commissioner of police (East), said, “We need to analyse the exact reasons for increase in the molestation cases. However, we have zero tolerance to such offences in public in private spaces. We’ve issued instructions to women police stations and all law-and-order police stations in the city that such issues should be brought to the records by registering the case rather than settling the matter that the suspects don’t get involved in such acts in future. The DG&IGP has also given instructions to register all the cases.”
City police commissioner B Dayananda said they have set up an ecosystem the officers are continuously creating awareness among women not to be bogged down by attacks and report such incidents.
Due to continuous efforts, more women are coming forward to report such incidents,” he added. “Molestation incidents are also reported during civil disputes that end in brawls between known persons, feuds within family and among relatives and friends.
A very marginal number of the molestation cases involve strangers attacking women,” DCP (Crime II) Srinivas R Gowda said. Efforts to create awareness among the public to report sexual harassment to police during public-police interactions and by distribution of pamphlets are also reasons for increase in cases, another officer said.
Among 1,135 molestation cases registered in 2023, police detected 1,004 of them. In 2022, 731 cases were reported and 688 detected. In 2021, 573 cases were reported, and 559 cases detected. The city has also witnessed increase in cases registered under IPC section 509 for insulting the modesty of women by way of words, sounds or gesture, or exhibiting any object.
While at least 60 cases under IPC section 359 were reported and 52 cases solved in 2023, the corresponding numbers were 29 and 20 for the previous year.
There was a marginal increase in rape cases registered under IPC section 376 in 2023, when 176 such incidents were reported and all of them were detected. In 2022, 152 rapes were reported and 151 of them were detected.
In 2021, 116 rape cases reported and all of them were detected. Three rape cases were reported in 2023, according to city police.