The latest National Crime Records Bureau report titled, “Crime in India – 2015”, confirms some assumptions, but reveals some startling facts
For Delhi to be the crime capital of the country, with the highest number of cognizable crimes (1.91 lakh in 2015), is an expected news item. After all, murders, robberies, rapes and human trafficking have become staple news items for the capital. But would one imagine Kerala as the road rage and rash driving capital of India?
Yes, God’s Own Country, with 10 percent of the country’s total number of vehicles, had the maximum number of cases related to road rage and rash driving in 2015. The top slots went to Thiruvananthapuram, with 12,440 cases, followed by Kochi (10,502) and Thrissur (8,068). Delhi, surprisingly, came a distant fourth in rash driving (7,411).
Read on to know how the various states fared on various parameters of crime in 2015 and how safe are our women, children, minorities and other segments:
Overall crimes
Delhi led among all metros, with 1.91 lakh cases of cognizable crimes in 2015. Of these, 1.73 lakh were IPC cases. The overall number of IPC cases in the country was 7.96 lakh.
In the capital, there were 9,104 cases of sexual offenses in 2015 (7,849 in 2014), 10,202 cases of violence against children (10,016 in 2014) and 7,703 abduction cases (7,143 in 2014). There were 570 murders. As many as 12,913 cases of corruption against policemen were registered.
Uttar Pradesh led in honor killings for 2015, with 131 cases. It was followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. It led in political murders too—with 28 cases. Jharkhand, Kerala and Madhya Pradish followed, in that order.
Dip in crime against women?
There were 3,27,394 cases of crime against women registered in 2015, as compared to 3,37,922 cases in 2014—a decrease of 3.1 percent.
While rape cases fell by 5.7 percent (from 36,735 to 34,651), other forms of sexual offense increased by 2.5 percent (84,222 cases as against 82,235 cases in 2014).
Uttar Pradesh earned the dubious distinction of having the overall highest number of crimes against women in 2015, at 35,527 cases, which was 10.9 percent of overall cases in the country. Next in line was West Bengal (33,218 cases) and Maharashtra (31,126 cases).
Madhya Pradesh reported the most number of rape cases (4,391) in 2015, followed by Maharashtra (4,144) and Rajasthan (3,644).
There were 2,199 rape cases in Delhi alone in 2015 (23.7 per one lakh female population). It also led in stalking cases—from 541 cases in 2014, the number of cases increased to 1,124. The city also had 19 cases of acid attack. The total number of crime cases against women in Delhi was 17,104, registering a crime rate of 184.3 per one lakh female population.
Human trafficking
A total of 6,877 cases of human trafficking were recorded in 2015, of which 3,400 cases involved children. Assam (1,494) followed by West Bengal (1,255) led in the overall human trafficking cases. These two states, along with Bihar and Haryana, also accounted for 85 percent of child trafficking in the country.
Juvenile crime graph soars
There were 2.94 lakh offenses involving juveniles in 2015, a rise of 2.5 percent over 2014. These included 853 murders. There was a surprising dip in sexual assault cases—from 1989 in 2014 to 1,688 in 2015.
Crime against children
A total of 94,172 cases of crime against children were recorded, of which 76,345 were sexual offenses or kidnappings. The crime graph soared 5.3 percent over 2014. A total of 10,854 cases of rape of children were recorded.
Crime against Dalits
45,003 cases of crime against Dalits were recorded in 2015. There were maximum attacks on Dalits in UP (8,358), followed by Rajasthan (6,998) and Bihar (6,436).
Green crimes
Environmental crimes came down from 5,835 to 5,156 in 2015—a fall of 11 percent. While Rajasthan had the highest number of crimes (2,074) in 2015, the state also recorded the steepest fall with 2,927 crimes in 2014.
Uttar Pradesh recorded the steepest increase, from 1597 to 1779.
Corruption
A total number of 5,867 corruption cases were recorded in 2015, as compared to 5,577 in 2014. This was a 5.1 percent increase. Maharashtra led with 1,279 cases and Madhya Pradesh (634), Odisha (456) and Rajasthan (401) followed.
Cyber crimes
Cyber crimes went up by 20 percent—from 9,622 in 2014 to 11,592 in 2015. The crimes included financial frauds, insulting women and sexual offenses, among others. The big surprise: Bihar saw 1,278 arrests for cyber crimes perpetrated by business competitors.
The fact of 2,400 percent increase in cyber crime over the past one decade—highlighted by the media— could be due to the exponential penetration of internet and social media across the country.
Crime on wheels
As high as 4.51 lakh cases of road rage and rash driving cases were registered across India in 2015. Among these, 1,538 involved juveniles. Kerala took the lead again, with 500 cases involving juveniles.
—compiled by India Legal desk
Lead illustration: Anthony Lawrence