Crime up 3.6% in India; Bengaluru tops in cyber crimes

India witnessed a 3.6% rise in crimes in 2017 compared to 2016 with Kerala topping the list followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra while Bengaluru stood only second to Delhi among metros in criminal activities.

Among the 19 metro cities with more than 20 lakh population, Bengaluru has the second highest number of crimes (47,173) registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) after Delhi, which registered 2.12 lakh cases.

A total of 50.07 lakh cognizable crimes, including 30.62 lakh cases under IPC crimes were registered in 2017, which is an increase of 3.6% in registration of cases over 2016 when 48.31 lakh cases were registered.

Kerala recorded 6.53 lakh cases in 2017 followed by Uttar Pradesh (6 lakh), Maharashtra (4.67 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (4.20 lakh), according to National Crime Records Bureau's Crime in India 2017 report released on Monday. Karnataka has 1.84 lakh cases recorded in 2017 as against 1.79 lakh cases in 2016.

Across the country, 28,653 cases of murder were registered during 2017, showing a decline of 5.9% over 2016 (30,450 cases). An analysis of the motive of murders showed that disputes (7,898 cases) had the highest number followed by personal vendetta or enmity (4,660 cases).

Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of murders with 4,324 cases followed by Bihar (2,803) and Maharashtra (2,103). Among the metro cities, Delhi with 400 murders and Bengaluru with 235 murders top the list.

When it comes to rape cases, there were 32,559 cases registered in the country in 2017 with Madhya Pradesh topping the list with 5,562 cases followed by UP (4,246), Rajasthan (3,305), Odisha (2,070) and Kerala (2,003). Karnataka had registered 546 cases, in which Bengaluru alone had 130 cases. Among the metros, Delhi registered the highest number of rape cases at 1,168.

Fifty-one cases of sedition were registered in which Assam (19) and Haryana (13) topped the list. There were only three cases in metro cities, including two in Chennai and one in Jaipur.

Bengaluru was behind Delhi in vehicle theft cases too as there were 6,155 such cases in the south Indian city compared to 37,948 in the national capital.

Cyber crimes also witnessed almost doubled -- from 12,317 in 2016 to 21,796 -- in the country. Karnataka was third in this category with 1,101 cases as against UP's 2,639 and Maharashtra's 2,380.

Bengaluru topped the list of cyber crimes with 2,743 cases, up from 762 in 2016. Mumbai came second with 1,362 cases.

The report also suggested that during 2017, 56% of cyber crime cases registered were for the motive of fraud (12,213 out of 21,796 cases) followed by the intention of sexual exploitation at 6.7% (1,460 cases) and causing disrepute at 4.6% (1,002 cases).