City logs most FIRs in metro cities: Data

Delhi registered an average of 34 criminal cases per day in 2022, making it the Indian city with the highest number of first information reports (FIRs) among major metropolitan cities. The city had a crime rate of 1,832.6 crimes per 100,000 residents, the highest in the country. Delhi accounted for 8.39% of all IPC crimes registered in India, with theft cases making up the majority. The city also ranked as the most unsafe for women, with the highest number of crimes against women. Delhi saw an increase in murder cases and cybercrime cases compared to the previous year.

The Delhi Police registered an average of 34 criminal cases per day in the city under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) last year, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), making the national capital the Indian city with the highest number of first information reports (FIRs) logged among major metropolitan cities.

Delhi accounted for 8.39% of all 3.56 million IPC crimes registered across India. (File)

According to NCRB, which released its data for 2022 on Sunday, there were 298,988 criminal cases registered in the Capital last year, amounting to a rate of 1,832.6 crimes per 100,000 residents — the highest in the country, and substantially higher than the national rate of 258.1.

The Capital’s high crime rate can be gauged from the fact that the second ranked city, Jaipur, logged crimes at a rate of 916.7 — around half that of Delhi — and the third ranked city Indore had a rate of 767.8.

In all, Delhi accounted for 8.39% of all 3.56 million IPC crimes registered across India. However, the city’s crime data is buoyed up per primarily by 205,545 theft cases, with this offence alone accounting for 68.74% of all cases.

Overall, Delhi’s crimes rose marginally (3.43%) from 2021, and significantly (21.6%) from 2020, when a stringent lockdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic had caused a decline in registration of cases.

But when it came to filing charge sheets, Delhi lagged, with charge sheets filed in only 30.2% of all cases. The second most crime-prone city, Jaipur, filed charge sheets in 34.6% cases, while third ranked Indore filed charge sheets in 72.8% cases. Kochi with 95.9% and Patna with 89.9% chargesheets led the chart.

Nalwa attributed the low percentage to the filing of “untraced reports” in many theft cases, which dragged down the overall chargesheet figures.

With an average of three rapes a day, and highest number of crimes against women, Delhi once again ranked the most unsafe city for women, with 14,158 cases of crimes against women, accounting for 29.04% of all 48,755 such crimes reported in 19 major cities across the country.

Delhi was distantly followed by 6,176 cases in Mumbai, and 3,924 in Bengaluru.

In terms of the charge sheet rate in crimes against women, Delhi with 72.4% stood on 18th position — only better than Hyderabad’s 71.7%.

Meanwhile, Delhi last year logged 501 murder cases, up from 454 the year before. However, the murder rate of 3.1 was lower than some other cities such as Patna (5.2) and Lucknow (4.5), though it was higher than the national rate of 2.1.

The national capital also reported nearly five robberies per day, but the 1,802 such crimes were fewer than the 2,315 robberies the year before. Cities with second and third highest number of robberies — Mumbai with 1,036 and Bengaluru with 603 — reported a rate of 5.6 and 7.1 per 100,000 people, considerably below Delhi’s rate of 11.

The number of cybercrime cases in Delhi (685) almost doubled in 2022, up from 345 in 2021. However, Delhi was far behind cities such as Bengaluru (9,940 cases), Mumbai (4,727), and Hyderabad (4,436).

The national capital also led in terms of crimes against senior citizens. From 1,166 crimes against the elderly in 2021, the number shot up 12.60% to 1,313 in 2022. Delhi was followed by Mumbai (572) and Bengaluru (458). Delhi also reported the highest number of crimes against children (7,400), followed by Mumbai (3,178), and Bengaluru (1,578).