Crimes up by 3% , kidnapping on rise, reveals NCRB report, but no data on lynching mentioned

The latest annual crime data, "Crime in India-2017", released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), on Monday, with no data on lynchings

However, a new section 'Crimes Committed by Anti National Elements'. has found its place in the report

According to a report by The Times of India in early 2019, the report was expected to include incidents such as "lynching by 5 or more persons", among others.

NCRB Data on killing of journalists is also missing from the report.

The NCRB data revealed that there was an increase of 3.6 per cent in criminal cases in 2017 compared to 2016 when 50 lakh cases of cognisable offences were lodged across the country.

The much-awaited data, which was delayed more than one year, for the crimes registered in 2017 revealed that the number of murder cases has declined 5.9 percent with 28,653 cases of killings registered in the year, down from 30,450 in 2016.

As per the data, "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)

There was, however, a nine per cent increase in kidnapping and abduction cases in 2017, with 95,893 cases registered against 88,008 in 2016, the NCRB data said.

As per the data, a total of 1,00,555 (23,814 male and 76,741 female) victims were reported kidnapped or abducted, out of which 56,622 (14,296 male and 42,326 female) victims were children and 43,933 (9,518 male and 34,415 female) victims were adults during 2017.

The NCRB data showed 9,89,071 cases of offences affecting the human body, including 1,42,794 cases of death by negligence and 86,001 of assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, were registered.

Fraudulent transactions and sexual exploitation were the most reported cyber crimes in India in 2017, according to the NCRB. The report said that cyber frauds led the number of reported cyber crimes by a large margin, accounting for a total of 12,213 individual reports across all states and union territories in India. The second most individually reported cases of cyber crime came in the form of online sexual exploitation and harassment, which were 1,460, as per India's official cyber crime records for 2017.

In terms of the topographic distribution of cyber crime reports, Uttar Pradesh has been accounted as the state that received the highest number of cyber crimes in 2017, with 4,971 out of the 21,796 accounted cases of cyber crime. Maharashtra ranked the second highest with 3,604 counts of reported online crime, while Karnataka ranked third with 3,174 cases.

In the northeast, Assam recorded sharply higher number of cyber crimes in comparison to other states, with a total of 1,120 reported cases in 2017.

Sexual exploitation and personal revenge have been noted as the two most focused motives behind cyber attacks in Assam, throwing interesting insight into how the nature of cyber crime differs among states.

Among the other most affected states, frauds and extortion were the biggest motives behind attacks in UP, while sexual exploits and frauds were the biggest causes of attacks in Maharashtra.

Alongside the uniform aspect of frauds in each state, "causing disrepute" has been noted as the second most reported form of cyber attacks in Karnataka in 2017.

The NCRB, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws in the country.

Death in prison increased by 5.49 % in 2017 against 2015

The number of deaths in prisons has increased marginally from 1,584 in 2015 to 1,671 in 2017, having surged by 5.49 per cent during 2017, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated on Monday. The Bureau also found that there is a minuscule increase in deaths inside prisons in 2017 as compared to 2016.

According to the report 'Prison Statistics India 2017', the total number of deaths in prisons in 2017 were 1,671 out of which 1,494 were natural and133 unnatural. While in 2016, deaths in prisons were 1,655 out of which 1,424 were natural and 231 were unnatural, in 2015 total deaths were 1,584 in which 1,469 were natural and 115 unnatural.

The number of unnatural deaths in prisons has increased by 15.7 per cent from 115 in 2015 to 133 in 2017. Among the 133 unnatural deaths of inmates, 109 inmates have committed suicide, 9 inmates died in accidents, 5 inmates were murdered and 5 inmates died due to assault by outside elements during 2017. For a total of 44 inmates deaths, cause of the death is yet to be known.

A total of 371, 577 and 378 prisoners were reported as escaped from lawful custody during the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.

"During 2017, 215 prisoners were reported as escaped from judicial custody. Out of 215 prisoners escaped, 70 prisoners escaped from inside prison premises and 145 prisoners escaped while they were outside prison premises. Gujarat has reported escapee of 90 prisoners while they were outside prison premises followed by West Bengal (11) and Bihar and Rajasthan (8) each," the report stated

Apart from escape from Judicial Custody, 163 prisoners escaped from Police Custody. Highest of such escape from policy custody was reported by Uttar Pradesh (39) followed by Punjab (17) and Andhra Pradesh (15).

A total of 15 jail break incidents were reported in 2017 with 10 cases in West Bengal. A total of 88 clash incidents inside jails were reported in 2017, highest of such clashes were reported by Bihar (35) followed by Delhi (19) and Punjab (11).

A total of 204 persons consisting of 181 prisoners and 23 jail officials got injured in such clashes and 1 prisoner died in such clashes.

In 2017, no incident of firing was reported across the jails in the country

The number of prisoners lodged in various jails has increased from 4,19,623 in 2015 to 4,50,696 in 2017 -- as on 31st December of each year -- having increased by 7.4 per cent during the period. In 2016, the total prisoners lodged were 4,33,003.

In 2017, out of the 4 50,696 prisoners, 4,31,823 were male prisoners and 18,873 were female prisoners.

In 2017, a total of 16,55,658 inmates were admitted in various jails of the country.

Out of 4,50,696 prisoners, the number of Convicts, undertrial inmates and detenues were reported as 1,39,149, 3,08,718 and 2,136 respectively accounting for 30.9 per cent 68.5 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively. Other prisoners accounted for 0.2 per cent (693 prisoners) of total prisoners.

The number of convicted prisoners has increased from 1,34,168 in 2015 to 1,39,149 in 2017, having risen by 3.7 per cent during this period. The highest number of convicted prisoners lodged in Central jails were recoreded to be 66.3 per cent with 92,184 prisoners followed by district jails 27.9 per cent with 38,785 prisoners and Open jails 2.4 per cent with 3,323 prisoners.

The total number of prisons at national level has decreased from 1,401 in 2015 to 1,361 in 2017, having decreased by 2.85 per cent during 2015-2017.

There are 1,361 prisons in the country consist of 666 Sub jails, 405 District jails, 142 Central jails, 64 Open jails, 41 Special jails, 22 Woman jails, 19 Borstal School and 2 other jails. The actual capacity of prisons has increased from 3,66,781 in 2015 to 3,91,574 in 2017, having increased by 6.8% during 2015-2017.

Out of the total capacity 3,91,574 in 1,361 prisons in 2017, the Central jails of the country were having the highest capacity of inmates (1,74,412) followed by the District jails (capacity of 1,53,383 inmates) and the Sub jails (capacity of 44,577 inmates).

With 3.59 lakh FIRs, crimes against women rise for third year in a row: 2017 NCRB data

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 latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released on Monday showed.

In 2015, 3,29,243 cases of crimes against women were registered and 3,38,954 cases were registered in 2016.

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. As many as 13,076 FIRs were registered in 2017, down from 15,310 in 2016 and 17,222 in 2015, the NCRB report said.

Assam recorded the highest crime rate of 143 in the country in 2017.

Crime rate is offences registered per one lakh people.

Odisha and Telangana recorded the second-highest crime rate of 94 each, followed by Haryana (88) and Rajasthan (73).

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.

Among Union Territories, Chandigarh registered 453 cases, followed by 132 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 147 in Puducherry, 26 in Daman and Diu, 20 in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and only six in Lakshadweep, the data stated.

The NCRB, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws in the country.