23 thefts in one hour in Delhi: Data

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.

- Shiv Sunny

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).