New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party national president J.P. Nadda’s wife, Mallika Nadda’s car, a Fortuner, was stolen in the national capital last week. Mallika Nadda’s car was taken to a service centre in Govindpuri, following which it was allegedly stolen, reports India Today.The car’s driver, Joginder Singh, had filed a complaint on March 19, it has transpired. He has reported that after dropping the car for service, he went home for a meal, but found the car missing on his return. The Delhi police registered the case and began searching for the car. News reports say that the Toyota Fortuner “was last seen going towards Gurugram, according to CCTV footage accessed by the police.” WION says the car has a Himachal Pradesh registration number.Car thefts up nationally 2.5 timesAs reported earlier this month in The Wire, vehicle thefts in India surged by 2.5 times in the calendar year (CY) 2023 compared to CY 2022, with New Delhi witnessing the maximum number of thefts, as per the ‘Theft and the City 2024’ report by Acko Digital Insurance.According to Business Standard, the report highlights that New Delhi accounted for 80% of passenger car thefts in India during CY 2023. Despite this, the capital’s overall share of vehicle thefts dropped from 56% in 2022 to 37% in 2023.Law and order in Delhi? Under Union home ministryLaw and order in Delhi is the responsibility of the Modi government. The Delhi police is under the Amit Shah-run Union home ministry. As per a news report in February, 2023, citing data shared by the Delhi Police, “over 91 per cent of crimes in Delhi in 2021 — including theft, extortion, and rape — were allegedly committed by first offenders with no past criminal record.” The Delhi police had then blamed “joblessness.”Reports have termed Delhi, “the crime capital of India” in December 2023, citing the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Report, 2022. While this refers mostly to crimes against women and rapes, The Indian Express reported an “uptick” from the year before, in crimes against senior citizens, “theft, cheating” figured as “top crimes” against Delhi’s senior citizens. Cyber crime cases in Delhi too, nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022.