Mumbai: Crime branch gets roped in to fight female molestation

In order to make the city safer for women, commissioner of police Datta Padsalgikar has roped in the crime branch to expedite investigation of undetected molestation cases. Earlier, such cases were handled at the police station level. But, keeping in mind that failure to detect existing cases of molestation might result in more occurrences of the crime, the new measures have been taken.

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According to a senior police officer, the CP recently instructed joint commissioner of police (crime) Sanjay Saxena to put his officers across various units to look into the investigation of undetected cases, registered under Section 354 (outraging modesty of woman) and 509 (intended insult to modesty of woman) of the Indian Penal Code. According to police statistics, in 2017, from January to September, 1,609 cases under Section 354 were registered, of which 1,227 were detected. Under Section 509, among 333 cases registered, 191 cases were detected. "Since officers at the police station are overburdened with multiple responsibilities including bandobast duties, sometimes certain cases don't get the required attention. That's why the crime branch is being roped, to fill in the gaps in the process," added the senior officer.

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