Social crimes are increasing in the Kathmandu Valley in recent years, according to data provided by the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police.

Though the fiscal year 2016/17 was an exception— fewer cases (2,885) were reported that fiscal compared to the previous fiscal year 2015/16 (2,980)—the number of social crimes went up in the fiscal year 2017/18 with 4,485 cases being reported to the police.

Deputy Inspector General of Nepal Police Shailesh Thapa Kshetri, chief of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Office, attributes the increase in the number of social crimes to the introduction of a new criminal code.

“After the Criminal Code 2074 came to effect last year, the category of social crime has become broader, hence the rise in the number of cases,” DIG Kshetri told the Post.

“Increased public awareness to report crimes with the authorities is another factor why the number of cases has rose in recent years,” he added.

According to the police, social crimes include drunken brawls, abuse and attack against law enforcement officers, disorderly conduct in public places, obstructing law enforcement officers from performing their duties,

taking over someone’s private property, spreading terror with the use of weapons, and document forgery.

“Social crimes are hard to intercept because the intention of perpetrators cannot be ascertained beforehand as opposed to the cases of premeditated crimes. One can never tell when a person is going to get drunk and start a fight. However, the police is equipped to take such situations under control,” said Kshetri.

In the first six months of the current fiscal year, 1,150 social crimes have been registered in the Valley.

“In order to control social crimes, we have been destroying homemade liquors and deploying security officers in different parts the Valley at night,” said Kshetri.

As part of the Community-Police Partnership Campaign, the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Office has also been organising community-level programmes in partnership with the local units in the Valley to curb social crimes.

Among the three districts in the Valley, Kathmandu has the highest rate of social crimes, followed by Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

Of the 4,485 cases registered in the Valley in the fiscal year 2017/18, the police data shows that 3,788 were registered in Kathmandu.