Mumbai sees 29 per cent dip in economic offences in 2020

Mumbai ranked second in white collar crimes with around 3,927 cases registered in 2020, as per NCRB data published on Tuesday.New Delhi saw the highest economic offences registered in 2020 with 4,445 cases.

The city ranked second in white collar crimes with around 3,927 cases registered in 2020. However, overall white collar crimes in Mumbai saw around 29% dip last year as compared to 2019. New Delhi saw highest economic offences registered in 2020 with 4,445 cases. Telangana’s capital Hyderabad ranked third with 3,427 offences.

The Mumbai Police investigated around 18,862 cases of economic offences in 2020, as per NCRB data. (Photo for representation)

Experts believe that due to Covid-19, the number of cases in 2020 were less as compared to 2019 when Mumbai had registered around 5,556 cases. In 2018, the Mumbai Police had registered around 4,803 offences of cheating by white collar criminals, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which released its 2020 annual report on Tuesday evening.

The Mumbai Police registered around 572 cases under section 406 for criminal breach of trust, seven offences for counterfeit under section 231, and 3,348 offences for forgery, cheating and fraud under sections 420, 465, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2020.

A total of 14,935 cases were pending from 2019. The Mumbai Police investigated around 18,862 offences in 2020 and had to dispose around 1,667 cases due to insufficient evidence despite the cases being true. The police filed charge sheets in 1,081 offences. However, 16,051 cases were pending investigations at the end of 2020 in Mumbai, which is the highest in the country. New Delhi had 14,431 cases pending in the same period.

Trial was completed by various special courts in 187 matters and courts disposed around 266 matters related to economic frauds; however, 21,948 cases were still pending for trials at various levels. The conviction rate in the city stood at 18.7%, far less than New Delhi which had a conviction rate of 53%.

The pendency percentage of most metropolitan cities having more than 2 million people stood at 98%, as per NCRB.

Mumbai Police arrested around 2,385 people for crimes related to economic offences and charge sheeted 1,727 people. They got conviction against 56 persons in white collar offences in 2020 while six were acquitted. A total of 228 people were acquitted by various courts from cases registered by the Mumbai Police for economic offences.

The conviction figures of Delhi police, Jaipur police and Kanpur police were better than Mumbai. Delhi Police witnessed around 160 convictions, while Jaipur police managed to bring to book around 174 accused and Kanpur police 383 accused.

“Investigation in economic offences cases is mostly lengthy as most of the time the prosecution depends on documentary evidence. Reports of various agencies like forensic, bank statements, handwriting experts form a part of the charge sheet, which delay the investigations. That is the reason why the officials take time to investigate cases and several cases are pending,” said Ramesh Mahale, retired police inspector and an expert who trains police personnel.