Crime rate dips, but Mumbai most unsafe metro city for senior citizens

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Crime in Mumbai saw a marginal dip from 317.5 cases in 2017 to 309.9 cases in 2018, according to the National Crime Rates Bureau's Crime in India 2018 report, that was released on Thursday.

The NCRB, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws in the country.

The data showed that the city police registered 57,073 cases under the Indian Penal Code and the state laws which 2.38 per cent lesser than the 58,456 cases filed in 2017. The crime rate of a city is defined with respect to the number of criminal cases lodged by the population of one lakh people.

In the list of the top metropolitan cities with the population of over 20 lakhs, Mumbai has dropped to fourth from the third position in the share of the criminal cases, falling behind Delhi, Chennai, and Surat. But in terms of crime rate, Mumbai has finished 17^th.

Even as the city saw a drop in the number of crime cases registered, Mumbai has maintained the first position in the crimes against senior citizens for the third year consecutively. The city has seen 1,073 cases filed by senior citizens, out of which 379 were fraud cases, 244 theft cases and 23 approached the police to registered sexual harassment cases.

When it comes to crimes against women, Mumbai saw rise 6,058 registered in 2018, against 5,453 cases in 2017 and 5,128 cases in 2016. Moreover, the report showed a rise in the number of kidnapping cases with 2,202 cases filed in 2018, compared to 2,159 cases in 2017 and 1949 cases in 2016.

The report also a rise in cybercrime cases with 1,482 cases filed by Mumbai police, compared to 1,362 cases filed in 2017 and 980 cases in 2016. Among the metropolitan cities, Bengaluru had topped in the number of cyber cases registered in 2018 with 5,253.

The report further mentioned that the Maharashtra police registered 5,15,674 cases, which is the second-highest among the 29 states and nine union territories. The number saw a rise compared to the 4,67,743 cases registered in 2017 and 4,30,866 in 2016. The highest number of cases of violence was recorded in Uttar Pradesh, the data said.

Mumbai police registered 6,196 crimes of violence in 2018, the average rate of which was 33.5 cases per one lakh population, compared to the average of 34.7 cases in metropolitan cities. The city 168 people being murdered in 2018 out of which 78 people were killed for property disputes among families.

(With inputs from PTI)

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