2023 NCRB data: Murder, rape fall, cybercrimes rise

A crime in India was committed every five seconds in 2023 and the total number of crimes swelled 7.2% from the previous year to 6.24 million, government data said on Monday, underlining that dangerous crimes such as murder or rape declined even as forgery, cheating, fraud, rash driving and cyber crimes ballooned.

- Abhishek Jha

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released Crime in India 2023 on Monday evening after a gap of two years.

Of the 6.24 million criminal cases that the 2023 report recorded, 3.76 million were those under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), up 5.7% after falling in the 2021 and 2022. Another 2.48 million cases were registered under Special and Local Laws (SLL), which increased 9.5% from 2022.

“Major increase is seen in the cases registered under Obstruction on Public way (Sec.283 IPC) from 93,548 cases in 2022 to 151,469 cases in 2023 and under ‘thefts’ from 652,731 cases in 2022 to 689,580 cases in 2023.

Similarly under SLL category, major increase is in cases registered under Motor Vehicle Act from 94,450 cases in 2022 to 191,828 cases in 2023,” the report said.

Murder declined 2.8%, abductions rose 5.6% and crimes against children spiked by 9.2%.

Crimes against women remained largely flat, rising a modest 0.7%. The case was similar for crimes against scheduled castes, which rose by 0.4%. But crimes against scheduled tribes saw a spurt of 28.8%. Cyber crimes soared by 31.2% and offences against the State dropped by 13.2%.

This is the last full year when the CII report will capture IPC crimes. The new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was passed by Parliament in 2023 and came into effect in July 2024.