Coimbatore : Cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, have slightly increased in 2019, registering 425 cases, as against 324 cases during the last year in the West Zone of Tamil Nadu comprising eight districts.

One of the main reasons for the increased number of cases was the awareness among the public who come forward to lodge complaints against such crimes, police said.

However, there was a decline in the cases of crime against women, which has come down to 830 compared to 887 last last year, a release from the office of West Zone IG, K Periaiah said Tuesday.

As against the 2,783 deaths in accidents during last year, the number has decreased to 2,051, a decline of 23.3 per cent.

Stating that a fine Rs.19.09 crore was collected for a little over 20.66 lakh traffic offences in 2019, it said that there were 11,30,423 cases last year collecting Rs 12.16 crore as penaty last year.

On other crimes, it said that there were 15 murder for gain cases, 237 robbery and chain snatching and 13 dacoity cases in the zone.

Police have detected and solved 83 per cent of the property related cases and recovered 80 per cent of properties– Rs.17.01 crore recovered as against the lost property worth Rs.21.09 crore.

As far as Coimbatore City, a total of 28 cases were registered under POCSO Act during 2019.

As against 162 deaths in accidents last year, the toll has come down to 132 in 2019. Similarly accidents also come down from 1,136 to 1,057.

As against over 5.16 lakh traffic violation cases registered in 2018, this year it has increased to about 6.46 lakh cases and realised Rs. 9.55 crore as fine last year as against Rs.13.44 lakh this year.