Hyderabad: Hyderabad saw a 10 per cent reduction in the overall crime rate but cybercrime saw an increase of 75 per cent during 2020, police said on Monday.
While there was a dip in most of the crime categories, cybercrime saw an increase compared to last year.
The city recorded 2,456 cases of cybercrime against 1,400-odd last year.
Police attributed this to more people using internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many people are working from home or staying indoors because of the pandemic situation,” said Shikha Goel, Additional Commissioner (Crimes and SIT).
Another reason is criminals switching over to cybercrime instead of conventional crime, said Goel, who was talking to reporters, along with Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar and other officials.
Overall crime figures show that 22,641 cases were registered in 2020 as against 25,187 cases registered in 2019.
The police commissioner said crimes against children dropped by 35 per cent. A total of 221 cases were registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act this year against 339 cases last year.
Crimes against women also decreased by 19 per cent. A total of 1,908 crimes against women were registered during 2020 against 2,354 last year.
There was 27 per cent reduction in property crimes, 26 per cent in bodily offences and 19 per cent in crime against women.
Categories of offences like murders, rape, dacoity, culpable homicide, chain-snatching, house break, robbery and theft also saw a reduction.
The police attributed the decrease in crime rate to continuous criminal tracking, dynamic police patrolling and installation of closed-circuit television cameras.
The number of deaths in road accidents also came down this year. Officials said 237 motorists killed as against 271 killed in 2019. They said 68 pedestrians were killed. The number for the last year was 108.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected over 3,000 policemen performing duties. As many as 39 of them succumbed to the virus and related complications.
