India recorded 27,721 cases of murder in 2023, a decrease of 2.8% from the previous year. However, in stark contrast, crimes against Scheduled Tribes surged by a significant 28% during the same period, according to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Cybercrimes also saw a substantial increase of 31.2%, with 86,420 cases reported in 2023, up from 65,893 in 2022. The NCRB, which serves as the national repository for crime statistics and trends, detailed that while 28,522 murder cases were reported in 2022, this number dropped to 27,721 in 2023, marking the aforementioned 2.8% dip.
The report highlighted “Disputes” as the primary motive for murders in 2023, accounting for 9,209 cases. This was followed by “Personal Vendetta or Enmity” with 3,458 cases, and “Gain” with 1,890 cases.
The alarming rise in crimes against Scheduled Tribes showed a 28.8% jump, from 10,064 cases in 2022 to 12,960 cases in 2023. Consequently, the crime rate within this category also rose from 9.6 in 2022 to 12.4 in 2023.
The NCRB clarifies that the crime rate is calculated as crimes per lakh population, based on the 2011 Census figures.
Regarding metropolitan areas, the report noted that “Crime Rates for Metropolitan cities have been calculated using Actual Population Census 2011.” Among these, cases related to simple hurt constituted 21.3% of the total, followed by 1,707 cases of riots (13.2% of total FIRs), and 1,189 cases of rapes (9.2% of the total count).
The cybercrime rate, specifically, climbed from 4.8% to 6.2% over the year.
A significant portion of cybercrimes in 2023, 68.9% to be precise, were driven by the motive of defrauding citizens, accounting for nearly 59,526 out of the 86,420 total cases. Sexual exploitation followed, making up 4.9% (4,199 cases), with extortion at 3.8% (3,326 cases).
Nationwide, a total of 6,241,569 cognisable crimes were reported in 2023. This figure includes 3,763,102 crimes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 2,478,467 under Special and Local Laws (SLL).
This represents an overall increase of 416,623 cases (7.2%) compared to the 5,824,946 cases registered in 2022. The national crime rate per lakh population subsequently increased from 422.2 in 2022 to 448.3 in 2023.
Crimes against women experienced a marginal increase of 0.4%, rising from 4.45 lakh cases in 2022 to 448,211 cases in 2023.
The majority of crimes against women registered under the IPC were attributed to “Cruelty by Husband or Relatives” (133,676 cases, 29.8%), “Kidnapping and Abduction of Women” (88,605 cases, 19.8%), “Assault on Women with intent to outrage her modesty” (83,891 cases, 18.71%), and offenses under the “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO)” (66,232 cases, 14.8%).
In the 19 metropolitan cities surveyed, 944,291 cognisable crimes were reported in 2023, marking a 10.6% increase from the 853,470 cases registered in 2022.
Within these metropolitan areas, 667,351 cases fell under Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes, while 276,940 cases were registered under Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes.
The most commonly reported crimes in metropolitan cities were “theft,” accounting for 44.8% of cases, followed by “rash driving on public way” (9.2%, with 61,570 cases), and “obstruction on public way” (8.1%, with 53,742 cases).