Coming to power on the promise of ending Lalu Prasad Yadav’s jungle raj, under Nitish Kumar’s sushasan in Bihar, cases of murder, kidnapping for ransom reduced significantly, according to a report by the Indian Express.
With the state assembly elections around the corner, JD(U) would be keen to keep up this track record like last elections which secured Kumar a landslide victory.
The IE analysis of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said that the annual murder cases had dropped by 21 per cent from 2004 to 2019. This is significantly better than the national average which dropped by 16 per cent during the same period.
While actual murder cases have gone down, incidents of attempted murder have drastically increased during Kumar’s three-term reign.
An NCRB official noted that murders are a good pointer to a state’s law and order. “While state police are notorious for not registering FIRs, you can’t ignore a dead body,” he added.
In comparison, attempted murder cases rose by 148 per cent from 2004 to 2019.
Another marker of crime - kidnapping for ransom - shows a significant rise of 214 per cent between 2004 and 2019.
According to the report, a majority of the kidnapping cases from last year were of elopement. Families of women and girls who oppose their relationships are often known to use this.
The report said that only 20 per cent of the kidnappings were of “serious” nature, while 80 per cent of the kidnappings were of women eloping. In 2019, only 43 cases of serious “kidnapping for ransom” cases were registered.
Explaining the increased number of kidnappings, ADG Kamal Kishor Singh said that the reason for the increase in kidnapping cases is both higher registration of crimes and the system of online complaints, which has facilitated people in cases of elopement.
Analysis of other data shows that there was a decrease of 47 per cent in rape cases and 70 per cent in dacoity cases between 2004 and 2019.
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