Crime in India 2021: Volume-III

India saw a reduction in the number of cases registered by the Government Railway Police (GRP) between 2020 and 2021 – from 99,381 to 29,746 – followed by an increase in 2021 to 41,816 cases. Maharashtra registered the highest number in 2021, that is, 10,280 cases. However, it was lower than the number the state registered in 2020.

The GRP reported a total of 34,359 Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 7,457 Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes in the year 2021. Most of the SLL crimes (5,394) fell under the liquor and narcotic drugs-related acts.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) registered a total of 424,027 cases under across the country. This was a considerable rise compared to the number registered in 2020 – 254,636.

Crimes committed against foreigners in India declined between 2020 and 2021 from 191 cases to 150 cases. Most of the crimes were of ‘theft’ (23 cases), ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (15 cases) and those of ‘rape’ and ‘cheating’ (14 cases each).

Out of a total of 171 foreign victims, the highest number were from Nigeria (27), followed by Nepal (25) and Bangladesh (22).

A total of 2,585 cases were registered against foreigners in 2021, marking an increase of 33.5 per cent over the 1,937 registered in 2020. West Bengal recorded the highest number of cases at 1,287.

The 768 Anti-Human-Trafficking Units in India registered a total of 2,189 cases of human trafficking in 2021. Of these, Telangana reported the highest number of cases (347), followed by Maharashtra (320 cases) and Assam (203 cases).

Victims of trafficking numbered 6,533 in 2021 – 2,877 children and 3,656 adults. Among those under the age of 18 years, male victims (1,570) were more in number than the female victims (1,307). This trend reversed in victims above 18 years of age, where female victims (2,755) outnumbered male victims (901).

Forced labour (2,704 victims) and sexual exploitation for prostitution (2,049 victims) were the main recorded ‘purposes’ of human trafficking. These were followed by trafficking for domestic servitude (475 victims) and forced marriage (182 victims).

As many as 389,844 persons (including 77,535 children) were reported missing in 2021. Of the total number of people reported missing, 124,177 were male, 265,481 were female and 186 were transgender.

There were 88 cases of death of persons in ‘police custody/lockup’, including those on and not on remand. The highest number of such cases were recorded in Gujarat (23 deaths) and Maharashtra (21 deaths). The report notes that 38 of these deaths were reportedly caused due to ‘illness/death in hospitals during treatment’ and 31 were due to ‘suicide’.

Of the 16 policemen arrested for violation of human rights (including encounter killings, torture or extortion), none were convicted.

In 2021, 22 civilians were killed and 153 injured during “police operations” such as police lathi charge and police firing.

At the end of 2021, 2,042,045 IPC cases and 805,880 SLL cases were pending investigation. In the courts, the pendency rate was recorded to be 91.2 per cent for IPC cases and 85.6 per cent for SLL cases.

Focus and Factoids by Yazhini Sathiamoorthy.