Murder cases dip, online cheating & forgery spike, reveals NCRB data

India registered 27,721 cases of murder in 2023, a fall of 2.8 per cent from 2022, while crimes against Scheduled Tribes (STs) rose by 28 per cent during the same period, according to a data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2023.

Cybercrimes saw a 31.2 per cent increase with 86,420 cases, as compared to 65,893 reported in 2022, it said. The national record keeper of crimes and trends revealed that 28,522 cases of murder were reported in India in 2022, which came down to 27,721 cases in 2023, a dip of 2.8 per cent.

Disputes were among the main motives behind the highest number of murder cases (9,209) in 2023, followed by other motives like personal vendetta or enmity with (3,458 cases) as well as gain (1,890 cases), the report said. Crimes against STs saw a jump of 28.8 per cent from 10,064 cases in 2022 to 12,960 cases in 2023, it said.

A total of 1,77,335 cases of crime against children were registered in the country in 2023, showing an increase of 9.2 per cent over 2022, according to the latest NCRB report.

The data compiled by the NCRB showed that the crime rate in 2023 stood at 39.9 per one-lakh child population in comparison to 36.6 in 2022.

In 2022, a total of 1,62,449 cases of crimes against children were recorded, while the number stood at 1,49,404 in 2021. “A total of 1,77,335 cases of crime against children were registered during 2023, showing an increase of 9.2 per cent over 2022,” the National Crime Records Bureau report said.

In percentage terms, major crime heads under “Crime Against Children” in 2023 were “kidnapping and abduction” and “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act”.

Victim demographics show that 762 victims were aged below six, 3,229 aged between six and 12, 15,444 aged between 12 and 16 and 21,411 aged between 16 and 18, bringing the total number of child victims to 40,846.

The economic capital of the country, Mumbai, topped among the 19 metro cities in cases of online cheating as well as forgery, and stood first in terms of pendency of cyber crimes.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, Mumbai stood second in cases of cyber bullying and stalking of women, with Hyderabad topping the list in this category. The data released for 2023 showed that while Hyderabad had 163 cases of cyber stalking and bullying of women and children, Mumbai stood second with 119 such cases registered.

In fact, Mumbai also had a case of online abetment of suicide, with Ahmedabad being the only other city apart from it with two cases registered under this category, the National Crime Records Bureau data stated. Mumbai also stood second after Bangalore in cases of using the internet for sexual exploitation, with 179 cases, with Bangalore recording 374 cases.

According to the NCRB, the crime rate is crimes per lakh population as per the 2011 Census figures.

“Crime Rates for Metropolitan cities have been calculated using Actual Population Census 2011. Section related to simple hurt which constitute 21.3 per cent of the total cases followed by 1,707 cases of riots, 13.2 per cent of the total FIRs, and 1,189 cases of rapes which constitute 9.2 per cent of the total count,” the report said.

The rate of cybercrime went up from 4.8 per cent to 6.2 per cent over the year, it said.

In 2023, 68.9 per cent of cybercrimes were aimed at defrauding citizens, forming nearly 59,526 of the total 86,420 cases, followed by sexual exploitation, which was at 4.9 per cent, with 4,199 cases, and extortion, 3.8 per cent, with 3,326 cases, it said.