Delhi and Uttar Pradesh topped the dubious chart of crimes among the metro cities and States, as per the annual crime data published on Thursday by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The Indian capital is the most unsafe of 19 major cities in the country, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of rapes reported, 33 per cent of crimes against women and the highest crime rate in 2016. The largest populous State Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes followed by Bihar among the States. Among metro cities, Delhi is followed by Bangalore and Mumbai in crime data of previous year.
The total number of rapes reported across India in 2016 was 38,947; cruelty by husband or his relatives was at 1,10,378; assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty was 84,746; kidnapping and abduction of women was 64,519.
In 2016, UP reported the highest number of cases of murder at 4,889, accounting for 16.1 per cent of the total such cases in the country, followed by Bihar where 2,581 (8.4 per cent). UP registered 14.5 per cent (49,262 cases) of total cases of crime against women, followed by West Bengal 9.6 per cent (32,513 cases) in 2016. Rape cases recorded an increase of 12.4 per cent from 34,651 cases in the country in 2015 to 38,947 in 2016.
Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum cases of rape at 4,882 (12.5 per cent) and 4,816 (12.4 per cent), followed by Maharashtra 4,189 cases (10.7 per cent) last year, according to the NCRB data, released by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
UP recorded 9.5 per cent of the total cases of crimes registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh (8.9 per cent), Maharashtra (8.8 per cent) and Kerala (8.7 per cent). A total of 37,37,870 people were arrested in the country in 2016 for various crimes, while a total of 32,71,262 people were charge-sheeted, 7,94,616 were convicted and 11,48,824 people were acquitted or discharged.
During 2016, IPC crimes have reported a charge sheeting rate of 72.9 per cent while conviction rate is 46.8 per cent in the country, Panwar said. Murder cases in the country have shown declining trends during the last three years. Murder cases decreased by 5.2 per cent from 32,127 cases in 2015 to 30,450 cases in 2016.
Cases reported under juvenile in conflict with law have shown a mixed trend for the past three years with the decline of 13.1 per cent in 2015 (33,433 cases) over 2014 (38,455 cases), followed by an increase of 7.2 per cent in 2016 (35,849) over 2015.
Delhi also has the dubious distinction of topping the National Crime Records Bureau list in cases of murder, kidnapping and abduction, juveniles in conflict and economic offences. According to the report for 2016, covering 19 cities with a population above two million, Delhi reported 33 per cent (13,803 cases of 41,761) of crimes against women last year. Mumbai followed at a distant second with 12.3 per cent (5,128 cases). The national capital has a population of nearly 19 million.
Delhi reported the highest number of kidnapping and abduction cases with 5,453 cases (48.3 per cent) followed by Mumbai with 1,876 cases (16.6 per cent) and Bengaluru 879 cases (7.8 per cent) during 2016.
In cyber crimes, Mumbai reported the highest number of cases - 980 (23.5 per cent) out of 4,172 cases -- in the 19 major cities in 2016.