Demonetisation brought down crime rate: ED

Enforcement Directorate Director P.K. Dash on Monday said that demonetisation has brought down the crime rate in India.

"There was so much noise about economic impact (of demonetisation). But, if you had seen the crime graph...the impact on crime has been ignored," he said while addressing a conference on terrorism here.

"The stone pelting in Kashmir suddenly vanished and it resurfaced recently. The crime graph all over the country has come down," he said.

"In India, whatever be the view of the economists on impact on growth, the demonetisation disruption has indeed impacted (crimes) in the short term. It is visible," Dash added.

Dash was delivering a talk on "Economics of Terror: The Indian Experience" at the 19th Asian Security Conference, held at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) here.

Speaking on the relationship between the illegal economy and terrorism, he said: "It is the rogue economies which are delivering terror."

Talking of financing of the Left wing Maoist extremism through illegal mining, he said that if the mining map of India was superimposed over the Maoist extremism map, "we will find that it is the same".

Calling for control over the flow of money for control on crime, Dash said that nations should exercise control over the movement of money and gold, and choke the financial supply line of the criminal network.

--IANS

rs/nir/vt