Industry
Economic offences at all-time high in 2022
Summary
- A total of 193,000 FIRs related to economic offences were filed in 2022, up 11% from the year prior. Instances of bank-related fraud, though, dropped
Indian police registered over 193,000 economic offences in 2022, a rise of 11% from the year prior, as per the latest data released recently by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The share of economic offences among all reported offences in the country reached an all-time high of 5.4%.
Among economic offences, two out of every three cases filed related to cheating, which falls under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Such cases jumped 16%.
Fraud cases, which include cases of bank- and card-related fraud, dropped slightly. Since NCRB only counts incidents reported in the form of first information reports (FIRs), the actual number could be higher.
Fraud geography
Telangana had the worst incidence of economic offences adjusted for population, almost double the next state on the list, Rajasthan. It also had the highest prevalence of cases listed under “forgery, cheating and fraud".
Sixteen states and Union territories reported fewer than 10 economic offences per 100,000 population, with Nagaland, Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh faring the best. Among major cities, Jaipur and Lucknow had the worst crime rates, and Ahmedabad the best.
Criminal methods
The most common type of economic offence was cheating, whose incidence increased 16% in 2022. Fraud cases (such as frauds related to ATMs, banks, and debit and credit cards) declined slightly, as compared to a 20% rise in 2021. Most of these cases involve amounts less than ₹10 lakh.
Economic offences refer to cases filed under sections 406–409 (criminal breach of trust); sections 231–243, 255, or 489A–489E (counterfeiting); or sections 420, 465, 468, 471, 231–243, 255 or 489A–489E (forgery, cheating and fraud) of the Indian Penal Code.
Tardy steps
Every year, the police department manages to dispose of nearly half of the economic offence cases at its desk. However, an influx of a similar number of new cases means that the pile of files awaiting investigation has kept growing.
In 2022, out of all cases that were pending from earlier and the new ones that got added, police were able to file a chargesheet in only 25% and could unload only an additional 22% by filing a final report.
At the legal stage, the process was even tardier. Around 95% of all cases awaiting trial at the beginning of the year were carried forward; the courts declared verdicts in only 4% of these.
