Video Producer: Debayan Dutta
Video Editor: Vishal Kumar and Mohd. Irshad Alam
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) finally released its 'Crime in India 2017' report on Monday, 21 October – with no mention of 'lynchings'. However, what does make its way into the report is a separate section on 'Crimes Committed by Anti National Elements'.
According to a report by The Times of India earlier this year, the report was expected to including incidents such as "lynching by 5 or more persons", among others.
Data on crime against RTI activists, journalists and social activists are also missing from the report.
A Home Ministry official, on Tuesday, 22 October, told PTI, “NCRB did not include murder due to lynching and other heads as data based on these parameters was assessed as 'vague/unreliable'.”
Meanwhile, in the section on 'Motives of Murder', a section called 'communal/religious’ has been included.
Over 50 lakh cases of cognisable crimes were registered across the country in 2017 – an increase of 3.6 percent from 2016 when 48 lakh FIRs were lodged, according to the latest NCRB data released on Monday.
The annual crime data for 2017 has been released after a delay of more than a year.
Crimes Against Women Rise for 3rd Year in a Row
As many as 3,59,849 cases of crime against women were registered across the country in 2017, continuing the upward trend for the third consecutive year.
The cases categorised as crimes against women include murder, rape, dowry death, suicide abetment, acid attack, cruelty against women and kidnapping, etc.
According to the NCRB data for 2017, which was released after a delay of more than a year, the maximum cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh (56,011) -- the country’s most populated state.
Maharashtra recorded the second-highest number of crimes against women with 31,979 cases, followed by 30,992 in West Bengal, 29,778 in Madhya Pradesh, 25,993 in Rajasthan and 23,082 in Assam, the data said.
Delhi, however, saw a decline in crimes against women for the third straight year.
Eight states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura -- registered crimes against women only in three digits, with not even one per cent contribution to the all-India figures, according to the NCRB data.
Kidnappings Rise, Murder Cases Decline
Murder cases registered a decline of 5.9 per cent in 2017. As many as 28,653 killings were recorded in 2017, down from 30,450 in 2016, the NCRB report said.
'Disputes' (7,898 cases) were the motive in the maximum number of murder cases, followed by 'personal vendetta or enmity' (4,660) and 'gain' (2,103), it stated.
Cases of kidnapping and abduction saw a 9 per cent increase in 2017, with 95,893 cases registered against 88,008 in 2016.
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