According to the latest report published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Wednesday, India recorded 58.85 lakh crimes in 2024, which is six percent down from 2023 when 62.41 lakh cases were reported. Crime rate is a measure of cases registered per lakh population. The rate dropped from 448.3 in 2023 to 418.9 in 2024. Puducherry, West Bengal and Kerala led in solving the crimes. Kerala filed charge sheets in 94.5 per cent of cases, followed by Puducherry at 91.0 per cent and West Bengal at 90.6 per cent, the report said.
The data showed cases registered under the ‘Hurt’ category registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 325, 326 and 329-335 saw a major decline, 30.58 percent, from over 6.36 lakh cases in 2023 to over 4.41 lakh cases in 2024. The report, however, clarified that the dip in cases of ‘Hurt or Grievous Hurt’ may be attributed to the changes in Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita introduced in 2023 which replaced the Indian Penal Code, where these sections had been merged and simple ‘Hurt’ made a non-cognisable offence.
In the year 2024, a total of 27,049 cases of murder were registered, which showed a marginal reduction of 2.4 per cent over the previous year. ‘Disputes’ were the leading motive behind these crimes, followed by ‘personal vendetta or enmity’ and ‘gain’, the NCRB report said.
A total of 96,079 cases of kidnapping and abduction were registered in 2024, showing a decrease of 15.4 per cent over 2023.
The data showed that out of 98,054 victims, over 70,000 of them female, were reported kidnapped or abducted in 2024. Of them all, 76,761 were children, while 21,293 were adults.
Crimes against women showed a dip of 1.5 per cent from the previous year. Cruelty by husbands or relatives was the major cause of such crimes. Along with this, kidnapping, crime against minors, assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty were also leading causes.
