Crime rate down in Maharashtra, but State ranks first in theft cases: NCRB
   Date :14-Oct-2020

Maharashtra police_1 
 
 
By Dheeraj Fartode :
 
Maharashtra gained dubious distinction of having highest number of theft cases - 96,826 - in the country
 
 
MAHARASHTRA, with 3,41,084 Indian Penal Code (IPC) cases in year 2019, is ranked second on the National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) recent list, which is topped by Uttar Pradesh with 3,53,131 IPC cases. However, crime rate in Maharashtra, which was 280.62 cases per one lakh of population in year 2018, has decreased marginally to 278.4 in 2019. According to NCRB, a total of 51,56,172 cognisable crimes comprising 32,25,701 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 19,30,471 Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes were registered in year 2019.
 
It shows an increase of 1.6 per cent in registration of cases over year 2018 (50,74,635 cases). Crime rate registered per lakh population has increased marginally from 383.5 in 2018 to 385.5 in 2019 in the country. Maharashtra registered 2,88,879 IPC cases in 2017 and the number jumped to 3,46,291 in 2018 by 16.57 per cent. The number further dipped to 3,41,084 last year with 1.50 per cent cases, contributing 10.6 per cent IPC cases in ‘Crime in India’. Most importantly, crime rate in Maharashtra has shown a declining trend last year. With 2.78.4 crime rate, Maharashtra ranked eighth across the country as far as crime rate is concerned. A top police official said that crime rate in Maharashtra was far better than the other States.
 
Kerala, which topped the chart, recorded crime rate of 499.7 per lakh population while Haryana showed 386.4 crime rate last year. Maharashtra gained dubious distinction of having highest number of theft cases - 96826 - in the country, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 51,658 theft cases. The State has registered highest number of thefts (96,517), robberies (7,763), dacoity (615) and dacoity with murder (11) in the NCRB report. The State also reported highest number of credit card frauds (385) and ranked second in cheating cases (10,236) followed by Rajasthan with 17,160 cheating cases.
 
‘The Hitavada’ contacted ex-Director General of Police (DGP) S P Yadav to ascertain the reason behind rising number of theft cases. He said that free registration of every complaint was one the reasons for highest number of theft cases. “Maharashtra Police register a case of robbery for chain-snatching or mobile snatching. The highest number of robberies is also result of free registration,” he said. Another official said since Maharashtra is most prosperous, economically sound, urbanised and industrialized State in the country, theft cases, too, are highest in the country.