Additional director-general of railway police Prashant Singh is happy that the crime graph in his domain has declined in the last three years despite the fact that he is not being assisted by a full-time SRP and over eighty per cent of the sanctioned posts of inspectors and DSPs and fifty per cent posts of constables are still lying vacant.

On Wednesday, Singh said the total number of reported incidents of drugging of passengers, robberies on trains and stations across the state had significantly gone down.

The state government had sanctioned three posts of superintendents of railway police (SRP) in Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur. However, the railway ministry did not approve the post in Ranchi.

Jharkhand now has functional offices of SRPs in Dhanbad and Jamshedpur. But, both these offices have been headless for long. The rural SPs of these districts hold the additional charge of SRP in their respective jurisdictions.

Jamshedpur SRP’s jurisdiction encompasses the Kolhan and South Chhotanagpur divisions and the Dhanbad SRP takes care of the rest of Jharkhand.

“But, these haven’t affected our functioning. Robbing passengers after drugging them in trains was a big menace in our state. But if you compare the statistics of the past three years, the crime graph has

fallen. In 2016, 12 drugging cases were reported, but only three cases have come to light till September 30 this year—

all in Dhanbad,” Singh said.

Total number of robbery cases reported in 2016, 2017 and 2018 were 13, 7 and 6. Two rapes each were reported in 2016 and 2017 and it came down to 1 this year. There were 5 cases of eve-teasing in 2017 compared with 2 this year.

“Majority of all kinds of reported cases have been solved and the accused charge-sheeted,” the rail ADG said.