Are We Safe? Some 5,400 Dangerous Criminals Live Amongst Us!

The long arm of the law finally catches up or maybe not. A classic example was the re-arrest of Bitti Mohanty, who, according to reports, eluded the police for six long years. He has been convicted of raping a German tourist in Rajasthan and he was finally rearrested in Kerala 6 years later.

Data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveals an alarming trend in the number of criminals who have escaped from police custody. Over the last 14 years, almost 20,500 people have escaped from police custody.

From 1999 to 2012, 4,136 people have escaped from police lock-ups while 16,316 people have escaped from outside lock-ups.

Figure 1 (a)

Figure 1 (b)

The year 1999 was the bumper year to run for it, with 1,764 individuals managing to give the cops the slip. The year 2001 saw the highest amount of people (508) escaping from lock-ups and 1999 had the highest number of criminals escaping from outside lock-ups. On an average, about 1,460 people escape from police custody every year.

All is not doomed… the data also shows that out of the 20,452 criminals on the run from 1999 to 2012, the police have re-arrested 15,043 people. Over these 14 years, 4,905 criminal who have escaped from lock-ups have been re-arrested and 10,138 criminals who escaped from outside lock-ups have been re-arrested by the police.

Figure 2 (a)

Figure 2 (b)

The police were extremely efficient during the year 2005 with 2,674 re-arrests, the highest number in these 14 years. That year also recorded 1,971 re-arrests of criminals who escaped from lock-ups, the highest number since 1999. There were 913 re-arrests of those who escaped from outside lock-ups in 1999, which is also the highest number in these 14 years.

A disclaimer must be mentioned here: escaped criminals re-arrested might not necessarily be those who escaped during that very year. For instance, during 2005, there were only 1,496 criminals who gave the cops the slip but there were also 2,674 re-arrests. The data for criminals who have escaped from police custody is only available from 1999 onwards, and it does not account for those who escaped before 1999 and are still floating around.

Now we’ll leave you with something to think about…. Over the past 14 years, 20,452 people escaped from the long arm of the law. Out of these, 15,043 of the escaped criminals were re-arrested. This means, that there is a strong possibility that there are over 5,400 potentially dangerous criminals living amongst us!