Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan top the chart in economic offences in 2018

Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed that Uttar Pradesh accounted for the maximum number of economic offences in 2018. While the state recorded 22,822 cases of economic offences, Rajasthan was a close second with 21,309 such cases.

Maharashtra reported 14,854 cases of economic offences and Telangana and Bihar saw 10,390 and 9,209 such cases respectively.

The data comes at a time when India’s probe agencies – the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation – are investigating some crucial cases pertaining to economic offences, including the Rs14,356 crore Punjab National Bank scam, the INX Media case, as well as the ICICI Bank-Videocon Industries case.

“Out of three specified category of economic offences (viz. criminal breach of trust, forgery, cheating and fraud and counterfeiting), forgery, cheating and fraud accounted for maximum such cases, with 1,34,546 cases, followed by criminal breach of trust (20,456 cases) and counterfeiting (1,266 cases) during 2018,” according to the NCRB Crime in India data 2018.

Of the three specified category of economic offences--criminal breach of trust, counterfeiting, and forgery, cheating and fraud--the maximum cases were registered under forgery, cheating and fraud totalling 27,903 cases, and accounting for 88.6% of such offences in 2018 across 19 metropolitan cities.

Countrywide, 1,56,268 cases of economic offences were recorded in 2018, higher than 143,524 such cases reported in 2017, according to the data. In 2016, such crimes totalled 148,972.

In 2017 as well, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh accounted for the highest share of reported economic crimes, the bulk of which were cases of forgery, cheating and fraud.

“A total of 8,02,267 cognizable crimes comprising 5,45,502 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 2,56,765 Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes were registered in 19 metropolitan cities during 2018, showing a increase of 10.0% over 2017 (7,29,174 cases). During 2018, IPC crimes have increased by 3.5% and SLL crimes have increased by 27.1% over 2017. Percentage share of IPC was 68.0% while percentage share of SLL cases was 32.0% during 2018.”

According to the data, in 2018, 55.2% of cyber-crime cases registered were fraud based, numbering 15,051 of the total 27,248 cases.