Delhi reports 23 thefts in one hour: NCRB report

Delhi reported 205,545 thefts in 2022, which accounted for 74.34% of all theft cases in major metropolitan cities

Among the 19 Indian cities with a population of over two million, Delhi was the favourite hunting ground for thieves with at least 23 thefts reported every hour, data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed.

In terms of rate of thefts (thefts per 100,000 population), Delhi was the worst-hit city with a rate of 1,260 — much higher than the national theft rate of 242.4. (HT Photo)

Delhi reported 205,545 thefts in 2022, which accounted for 74.34% of all theft cases in major metropolitan cities, and 31.5% of all theft cases across India, according to the NCRB data released on Sunday.

In terms of rate of thefts (thefts per 100,000 population), Delhi was the worst-hit city with a rate of 1,260 — much higher than the national theft rate of 242.4. The second worst city in terms of rate of theft was Jaipur, which reported 9,467 thefts at a rate of 308.1.

Delhi’s theft numbers were also disproportionately higher than other major metropolitan cities such as Mumbai (17,876 thefts at a rate of 97.1), Bengaluru (7,574 at a rate of 89.1), Chennai (3,230 at a rate of 37.1) and Kolkata (1,197 at a rate of 8.5).

Delhi’s figure for 2022 was also a sharp increase from the previous two years — in 2021, the city had reported 198,133 thefts, and had logged 175,442 thefts in 2020.

To be sure, NCRB attributes the very high numbers in Delhi to several factors, including the facility of online registration of first information reports (FIRs).

“Certain states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, etc have provided the citizen-friendly service of online registration of FIR under certain category of offences like ‘vehicle theft’ and ‘other thefts’. As this may have increased the crime reporting under such heads in these states, they become statistically non-comparable with other states not having such online registration facility,” NCRB said in its report.

Delhi Police officers have repeatedly said that the high number of theft cases registered in the Capital is due to a host of factors, ranging from their “free and fair registration of FIRs”, to victims of thefts in neighbouring NCR cities choosing Delhi as the place for filing their cases due to “ease of the process”.

Delhi Police spokesperson Suman Nalwa attributed the high number of thefts in the national capital to the “ease of reporting” crimes. “We offer the facility to file e-FIRs of theft and burglary, which leads to a large number of cases getting reported, many of which would not have been reported otherwise. The easy process of registering theft cases in Delhi also prompts many victims of other NCR cities to register cases here. Moreover, the number gets inflated due to some victims filing separate cases when it comes to thefts of different items in the same incident,” said Nalwa.

A large chunk of thefts in Delhi were of vehicles (38,069), accounting for around 15% of the 252,569 such offences from across India. Nalwa said thefts cases also include a lot of “lost” documents. “Last year there were 600 cases of Aadhar card thefts reported, 400 of PAN cards and 300 of diving license. Many people choose to report a lost case as a theft,” she said.

The “theft” category in the NRCB report does not include related offences such as burglary, robbery, dacoity, or any snatching that involves use of force.