Bareilly: The year 2017 has proved to be unsafe for woman. There is apparent from the 205 cases of rape reported in the period between January and April across the nine districts of Bareilly zone comprising Bareilly, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit, Rampur, Moradabad, Amroha, Sambhal and Bijnor districts. The number surpasses the 152 cases reported in 2016 during the same period and 126 in 2015.The rise in number of rape cases has been registered despite the then Akhilesh Yadav government taking several measures like stepping up highway vigil and launching the UP 100 service following the sensational gang-rape of a mother-daughter duo on National Highway 91 in August last year.Data assessed from the additional DGP’s office here reveals that 125 cases of rape were reported in Moradabad division alone in the first four months of 2017. During the same period in 2016, 77 cases were reported in the region. This means that there has been a 40% rise in cases of rape in Moradabad division which comprises Amroha, Rampur, Sambhal, Bijnor and Moradabad districts.While these rape cases only add to the ever-rising crime figures in the state, police officers claim that things will take a turn for the better in the near future. “Once we settle down with transfers and postings, it will be easy for us to draft a roadmap to tackle heinous crimes in the state,” said additional director general (law and order) Aditya Mishra. However, he could not explain how a routine process of transfers and postings impacts the crime scenario in the state.Police have also sought to explain the spurt in rape cases to “technical rapes” resulting out of a fallout in relationships and “using” woman members of the family to settle scores. “Only 10-15% of the rape cases reported nowadays are genuine. Rest are technical rapes where a case under IPC section 376 is filed either after a bitter fallout from a love relationship or to settle scores with rivals in family feuds," said Rohit Singh Sajwan, superintendent of police (city) here in Bareilly.The officials claim that the data on rape cases would be reliable if they had a mechanism to filter genuine from false rape cases. The investigating officers have a tough time filtering out technical rape from genuine ones. More so following Supreme Court guidelines. “It is only during later stages of investigation that we figure out the actual case,” said an investigating officer who did not wish to be named.

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