56 caste dispute deaths; 19 human sacrifices in 2017

Murder with caste as motive claimed 29 lives Uttar Pradesh during 2017 - highest in the country - followed by Karnataka with eight such cases.

As many as 28,653 murders were reported across the country in 2017. The fight over resources is also increasing as the country saw dispute over water leading to murder in 50 instances in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Both the states, which reeled under drought, have reported 14 such cases each. Gujarat reported five cases while Punjab and Bihar had four cases each. Karnataka too had its share of two cases, same as that of Uttar Pradesh.

There were also 19 instances of human sacrifices in 2017 where people fell victim to witchcraft and black magicians and bulk of the cases came from Karnataka, Haryana and Maharashtra, which reported five cases each.

When it comes to honour killings, there were 92 such cases compared to 192 cases in 2015. Murders due to witchcraft were 73, down from 135 cases in 2015.

Love affairs (1,390 cases) and illicit relationships (1,738) can also lead to a number of murders in the country while the highest number of murders were due to disputes. Among the disputes, quarrel over money led to the killings in 779 instances while petty quarrel resulted in 1,872 murder cases.

If one compares the total number of murders in 2017, it shows a decline from 30,450 reported in 2016 and 32,127 in 2015. In 2017, UP reported the highest number of murders followed by Bihar (2,803) and Maharashtra (2,103) while Karnataka reported 1,384 cases, including 235 in Bengaluru.