N.C.R.B., (M.H.A.) CRIME IN INDIA-2000
CHAPTER – 1
TABLES
CRIME SURVEY
Introduction:
Rule of Law
1.1.1 Law enforcement and management of law and order, security, crime prevention and crime detection are essentially enforced and performed by the Police authorities. The role and performance of police is governed by the following 3 major laws.
(a) The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860.
(b) The Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
(c) The Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.
1.1.2 The Indian Penal Code is the general penal code for the country. It identifies the acts of omissions and commissions that constitute the offences and makes them punishable under this Act. It provides punishments for offences committed within India, punishment for offences committed beyond, but which by law may be tried within India and also extends applicability of the Act to extra-territorial offences. Over the years, the scope of the Act has been enlarged by few amendments and by insertion of specific provisions as extensions.
1.1.3 The Indian Evidence Act is a major law relating to evidence and applies to all judicial proceedings in any court or court martial. This Act has undergone few amendments to enlarge the scope of acceptance of evidence and presumptions as admissible.
1.1.4 The Criminal Procedure Code is the major procedural law relating to conduct of investigations, trial and appeal. This procedural law underwent major amendments in the year 1973.
1.1.5 Apart from these, to cater to various specific needs, several new laws have been enacted. As such, several Special Laws and Local Laws(SLL) have been enacted from time to time to meet the growing crime prevention needs. They are broadly categorised as
(i) Special Law (vide Section 41 of IPC) which is applicable to a particular subject, and
(ii) Local Law (vide Section 42 of IPC) which is applicable to a particular part of India.
Offence and crime
1.1.6 The word `Offence' (Sec. 40 IPC) denotes any act or omission, made punishable, by any law, for the time being in force. While the term `offence' may be specific, the term `crime' is generic, largely signifying offences which are serious in nature.
Cognizable and Non-Cognizable Crimes
1.1.7 The Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) divides all crimes into two categories.
(i) Cognizable (vide Sec.2(c) CrPC).
(ii) Non-cognizable (vide Sec.2(1) CrPC).
Cognizable Crimes
1.1.8 All cognizable crimes reported in the country are dealt by the Police in which, a police officer may arrest a person without a warrant. In such crimes, the police has a direct responsibility to take immediate action on receipt of a complaint or of credible information, visit the scene of the crime, investigate the facts, apprehend the offender and arraign him before a court of law having jurisdiction over the matter. Cognizable crimes are broadly categorised as those falling either under the `Indian Penal Code (IPC)' or under the `Special and Local Laws (SLL)'.
Non-Cognizable Offence
1.1.9 Non-Cognizable crimes are generally left to be pursued by the affected parties themselves in Courts. Police does not initiate investigation in non-cognizable crimes except with magisterial permission. The first schedule of the Cr.P.C. gives the classification of the offences of the IPC into cognizable & Non-cognizable.
1.1.10 The various crimes, that are being recorded for Statistical Information System, can be broadly grouped under the following categories.
A. List of Crimes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
i) Crime against life: Murder, Its attempt, Culpable Homicide not amounting to Murder, Kidnapping & Abduction, Hurt
ii) Against Property: Dacoity, its preparation & assembly, Robbery, Burglary, Theft, Kidnapping & Abduction of Women & Girls.
iii) Crime Against Women: Rape, Dowry Death, Cruelty by Husband or Relatives, Molestation, Sexual Harassment and Importation of Girls.
iv) Other IPC crimes.
v) Against Public: Riots, Arson
vi) Economic crimes: Criminal Breach of Trust, Cheating, Counterfeiting
vii) *Crime against Children: Child Rape, Kidnapping & Abduction of Children, Procuration of minor girls, Selling of girls for Prostitution, buying of girls for Prostitution, Abetment of Suicide, Exposure and Abandonment, Infanticide, Foeticide
* Data under Monthly Crime Statistics only (not in Crime in India data).
B. List of Crimes under the Special Laws (SL)
i) Arms Act
ii) Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act
iii) Gambling Act
iv) Excise Act
v) Prohibition Act
vi) Explosives & Explosive Substances Act
vii) Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act
viii) Indian Railways Act
ix) Registration of Foreigners Act
x) Protection of Civil Rights Act
xi) Indian Passport Act
xii) Essential Commodities Act
xiii) Terrorist & Disruptive Activities Act
xiv) Antiquity & Art Treasure Act
xv) Dowry Prohibition Act
xvi) Child Marriage Restraint Act
xvii) Indecent Representation of Women (P) Act
xiii) Copyright Act
xix) Sati Prevention Act
xx) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
xxi) Forest Act
xxii) Other crimes(not specified above) under Special and Local Laws
Other Law Enforcement Agencies
1.1.11 There are few Central Law Enforcing Agencies characterised as `Special Investigation Agencies' which also register cognizable crimes, investigate and place results to `Normal' or `Special' Courts, for trial. They include `the Central Bureau of Investigation', `the Directorate of Enforcement', `the Central Board of Direct Taxes', `the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence', `the Directorate of Preventive Operations', `the Narcotics Control Bureau', `the Directorate of Income Tax' at the Centre and the Agencies like `the Directorates of Vigilance', `the Directorates of Enforcement', `the Forest Cells' etc. functioning under State Governments.
Complaints Received by Police
1.1.12 To judge the quantum of work load on police, the total number of complaints received by police whether oral, written, distress call or the one’s initiated suo-moto by police is attempted. The quantum of such complaints visa-vis actual number of cognisable crime cases registered by Police are presented in [Table-1A].
1.1.13 In all 56,62,773 such complaints were received thoughout the country by police during the year. Of these 36.2 percent were written complaints, 18.5 percent were oral complaints, 41.8 percent were initiated by Police and 3.5 percent distress calls booked over phones (No.100). It is observed that nearly 91 percent of these complaints were actually registered as a cognizable offences. The quantum of these complaints increased by 4.8% over the previous year (1999).
Reported incidence of Cognizable crimes
1.1.14 The incidence level of crime in the country, during the decade 1990 to 2000 is presented in Table-1. As many as 51,67,750 cognizable crimes were reported in the country during 2000. These comprised 17.7 lakh cases under the IPC and 34.0 lakh cases under the SLL. The ratio of IPC to SLL crimes, which showed decrease during last few years further decreased from 1:2.47 in 1998 to 1:1.78 in 1999. This however, showed increase to 1.92 in the year 2000, signifying nearly 2 SLL crimes against 1 IPC crime.
Table-1.1
Cognizable Crimes registered during 1995-2000
Year / IPC / SLL / Total / Ratio (IPC: SLL)1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000 / 16,95,696
17,09,576
17,19,820
17,78,815
17,64,629
17,71,084 / 42,97,476
45,86,986
46,91,439
44,03,288
31,98,902
33,96,666 / 59,93,172
62,96,562
64,11,259
61,82,103
49,11,730
51,67,750 / 1:2.53
1:2.68
1:2.73
1.2.47
1:1.78
1:1.92
1.1.15 In addition to the 51,67,750 cognizable crimes, the other investigating agencies under the Central and State Governments also registered 70,646 cognizable crimes. Thus, crimes registered by the aforesaid agencies increased the cognizable crimes from 51,67,750 to 52,38,396. The agency-wise details are tabulated below:
Table-1.2
Cognizable crimes Registered by various Enforcement Agencies in 2000
Sl.No. / Agency / Act under which cases registered / No. of cases registered(1) / (2) / (3) / (4)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 / State & UT Police authorities
-do-
Vigilance Deptt. of States & UTs
Central Bureau of Investigation
Enforcement Directorate
Central Board of Direct Taxes
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
Narcotics Control Bureau
Directorate of Preventive Operations / Indian Penal Code
Special and Local Laws
Prevention of Corruption & related Sections of IPC
- do -
FERA, 1973
Income Tax Act
Customs Act, 1962
NDPS Act, 1985 and PIT NDPS Act, 1988*
Customs & Central Excise, Customs Act, 1962 / 17,71,084
33,96,666
2,943
921
2,425
5,321
39,178
12,460
7398
Total / 52,38,396
* Number of seizures made by central and State agencies
Population
1.2.1 Mid-year estimated population is used for calculating crime rate. The mid-year estimate of population for the year 2000 was 10021 lakhs as compared to 8,270 lakhs for the year 1990 (Table-1). The population of the country in the decade (1990-2000) increased by (21.2) per cent, with a compound growth rate of 1.9 per cent per annum.
CRIME TREND AT ALL-INDIA
Total Crimes (IPC + SLL)
Crime Incidence
1.3.1 The total cognizable crimes in the country had been steadily increasing. It is however keeping pace with the increase in population, though at varying rates, over the past 50 years. The incidence increased by 5.5 percent over the decade with a compound growth rate of only 1.0 percent per annum.
1.3.2 The IPC crimes have reported higher increase to the tune of 10.4 percent during the decade compared to lower increase in SLL crimes (3.1%).
Crime Rate
1.4.1 Population is one of the factors influencing incidence of crime. There is a positive correlation between the growth in incidence and the population of the country. Besides population, the other factors influencing the crime incidence of a particular place could be growing urbanisation leading to migration of population from neighbouring places, unemployment, income disparity etc. However, the present analysis of crime rate is restricted to the influence of population only. The analysis of Crime Rate of a particular state shouldn’t be, therefore, construed as the sole indicator of crime position of that particular state in relation to others.
1.4.2 The rate of crime defined as the `incidence of crime’ per lakh (1,00,000) of population is universally taken as a more realistic indicator since it balances the effect of growth in population. The rate of total cognizable crimes in the country during 2000 was 515.7. This crime rate increased marginally by 3.6 per cent over previous year. The crime rate in respect of IPC crimes decreased by 1.2 per cent and SLL crime rate increased by 6.2 per cent during the year.
Crime Incidence - IPC
1.5.1 17,71,084 IPC crimes were reported in the country during the year, as against 17,64,629 during 1999 recording marginal increase of 0.4 per cent only. The share of IPC crimes to total cognizable crimes in percentage terms, however, decreased to 34.3 from 35.9 in 1999.
1.5.2 The crime head-wise incidence of IPC crimes are presented in Table-2. This table also gives percentage variations in 2000 over 1990, over the quinquennial average (1995-99) and also over the year 1999.
Crime Rate - IPC
1.6.1 The IPC crime rate of 176.7, compared to crime rate (194.0) in 1990 recorded a decline of 8.9 per cent. The decadal (1990-2000) variation showed a compound decreasing rate of 1.0 per cent per annum. The crime rate during the year also decreased by 3.0 per cent over the quinquennial average (1995-99) rate of 182.1. Compared to 1999, it is observed that the IPC crime rate at All-India level also decreased by 1.2 per cent.
Crime Pattern (IPC crimes)
1.7.1 The crime head-wise pattern of IPC crimes during 1996-2000 in Table-3 reveals that percentage share of crimes such as Cheating, Hurt, Molestation and Cruelty by Husband or Relatives continue to record increasing trend over the years. While those of property crimes such as Theft and Burglary reported decline.
1.7.2 The proportion of the specified crimes has decreased from 56.7 per cent in 1999 to 56.0 per cent in 2000 i.e. more number of cases were reported in the `Other’s’ category as compared to the previous year (1999).
1.7.3 Table-2 signifies that there is a uniform trend in Violent crimes and declining trend in Property and Economic Crimes in the country.
Table-1.3 Chart-1.1
Percentage Distribution of various IPC crimes during 1998-2000
Sl.No. / Crime Distribution / 1998 / 1999 / 2000 /
(1) / (2) / (3) / (4) / (5)
1. / Violent Crimes / 14.3 / 13.5 / 13.4
2. / Property Crimes / 22.9 / 21.7 / 20.6
3. / Economic Crimes / 3.1 / 3.3 / 3.2
4. / Other IPC crimes / 59.7 / 61.5 / 62.1
Violent Crimes
1.8.1 2,38,381 Violent crimes constituting 13.4 per cent of the total IPC crimes were reported during the year. The incidents and crime rate of violent crime decreased compared to 1999. The rate of violent crimes decreased from 24.3 to 23.8 in 2000. Detailed analysis, in respect of violent crimes, has been separately done in the chapter on Violent Crimes.
Property Crimes
1.9.1 A total number of 3,63,979 Property crimes constituting 20.6 per cent of the total cognizable crimes under the IPC were reported during the year. As compared to the previous year, this form of crime recorded a decrease of 5.0 percent. The share of these crimes has also been steadily decreasing during the past 4 decades. From a two third share of 67.1% in 1953, the proportion of these crimes has come down to only 20.6 per cent in 2000. The rate of such crimes also decreased from 38.9 in the previous year to 36.3 in this year (2000).
Economic Crimes
1.10.1 58,581 Economic Crimes constituting 3.3 per cent of the total cognizable crimes under the IPC were reported in the country, showing marginal increase of 0.6 per cent in the incidence level, compared to the previous year. The rate of such crimes at the national level, however, remained constant at 5.9.
IPC CRIME TRENDS - STATES
IPC Crimes
Incidence
1.11.1 The State, UT and city-wise incidence of total cognizable IPC crimes during 1995-2000 and the percentage variations during 2000 over the Q.A. of 1995-99 and over 1999 are given in Table-4. The States of Sikkim (44.3%) and Lakshadweep (22.6%) reported higher decline in the reporting of crimes as compared to previous year. A&N Islands reported (24.7%) increase in the reporting of crimes. Madhya Pradesh reported the highest incidence with 2,16,441 cases, accounting for 12.3 per cent of the total IPC crimes followed by Maharshtra (9.8%). These 2 states together accounted for 22.1 per cent of the total cognizable IPC crimes reported in the country during the year. The number of States and UTs falling under different ranges of incidence of IPC crimes during the year is tabulated below.