NCRB report: Murder rate dipped dramatically, lowest since 1957

New Delhi, Oct 23: The latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) suggests that the murder rate has been the lowest in the past five decades.

The data for 2017 which was released by the NCRB says that the murder rate was at 2.49 lakh per lakh population. It suggests that this is the lowest since 1957, barring the year 1963 when it stood at 2.34 per lakh population.

The latest report also shows that there has been an increase of 3.7 per cent in the registration of cases when compared to the previous year. The report says that the numbers of rape cases are the lowest since 2013.

The number of crimes in Uttar Pradesh accounted for 10 per cent of the total crimes under the Indian Penal Code. The report prepared for the period January 1 to December 31, 2017, however, said that UP and Delhi should not be compared to the other regions as they had started online registration of cases, which lead to an additional increase.

The number of murders registered a decline of 5.9 per cent. In 2017, there were 28,653 killings recorded. In the year 2016, it was 30,450.

However, cases of kidnapping rose from 88,808 in 2016 to 95,893 in 2017.

In terms of rape, the NCRB said that the year 2017 recorded 32,599. The total number of victims was 33,658 of which 10,221 were girl/child victims. This is, however, the lowest since 2013, when the number of cases and victims was 33,707 and 33,764.

The conviction rate for crimes against women was 24.5 per cent in 2017. In Delhi, the rate was 35 per cent. West Bengal and Gujarat were the least with 3.2 and 3.1 respectively.

A majority of the cases were filed under the category 'cruelty by husband or his relatives (33.2) followed by assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty (27.3).
The number of sedition cases in 2017 was 51 and the number of cases against the state was 9,013. Cases under the Official Secrets Act had come down from 30 in 2016 to 17 in 2017.

The NCRB also for the first time collected data on the circulation of fake/false news and rumours. Under this category, maximum incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh (138), Uttar Pradesh (32) and Kerala (18).