The rising crime rate in Malad West

Have any of you noticed the rising instances of crime in Malad West? Let's go back in time.

Remember the Neeraj Grover (Susairaj) murder case? What about the Sanghavi double murder case in Liberty garden in May? Where does the famous molester Pritesh Doshi hail from? What about the double murder at China Link building on Link road last year? Remember the shocking murder of Sayeda Ibrahim in Malvani? Or the Pradeep Parmar sex racket a couiple of years ago? Don't we all know of the rampant narcotics/rave/rape/crime scene in the Madh area? Malvani is becoming increasingly notorious for criminal activities. Every now and then, there's a bomb scare at Inorbit. How many people drown off Aksa every year? The list is endless...

You wanna know the reason why crime rate in Malad west is shooting through the roof?

Well - here it is. The whole of Malad West has just 2 police stations - Malad and Malwani.

If you go by Mumbai Police's own statistics - both the police stations put together cover a population of almost 45 square kilometres and a population of almost 10 lakhs! Between the two of them, they have all of 8 beat chowkies, 7 wireless mobiles and just 9 beat marshalls.

In 2005, the central home ministry announced the setting up of 2 coastal police stations in Mumbai. After 26/11, that number was increased by the state government to 5 - including a proposed one at Madh. Nothing has happened on that front so far!

Are we waiting for another MV Kuber to dock at Aksa beach and another Kasab to go on a shooting rampage at Madh Jetty or Uncle's Kitchen junction or Inorbit? The explosives of 1993, too, came via sea. Malad has a huge coastal belt. I shudder at the prospect of another 26/11 style attack in Malad ...

I sincerely hope we get another police station, the much-needed coastal police chowkie and some more cops - armed and trained cops, that is ...