‘Crimes dipped by 6 pc across country’

New Delhi, May 6 : India recorded 58.85 lakh crimes in 2024, a six per cent dip from 2023 when 62.41 lakh cases were reported, according to the latest figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau on Wednesday.

Crime rate, which is a measure of cases registered per lakh population, also dipped from 448.3 in 2023 to 418.9 in 2024, it revealed.

Cases registered under the ‘Hurt’ category registered under Indian Penal Code sections 325, 326 and 329-335 saw a major decline, 30.58 per cent, from over 6.36 lakh cases in 2023 to over 4.41 lakh cases in 2024, the data showed.

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’ being made a non-cognisable offence.

During the year, a total of 27,049 cases of murder were registered, showing a marginal decline of 2.4 per cent over the previous year, with ‘disputes’ being the leading motive behind the crimes, followed by ‘personal vendetta or enmity’ and ‘gain’, it said.

‘Crime against women’ showed a dip of 1.5 per cent from the previous year, with 4.41 lakh cases lodged in 2024 as compared to 4.48 lakh the previous year.

‘Cruelty by husband or relatives’ was the leading cause of such crimes, followed by kidnapping, crime against minors, assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, the data said.

“The crime rate registered per lakh women population was 64.6 in 2024 in comparison with 66.2 in 2023,” the report said.

The report revealed that a total of 55,698 cases were registered for crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs), showing a decrease of 3.6 per cent over 2023, when 57,789 cases were registered.

Crimes against Scheduled Tribes also showed a sharp decline of 23.1 per cent, with a total of 9,966 cases in 2024, as compared to 12,960 cases in 2023.