Economic offences in India rise by 5.3% in 2015

Economic offences in India had increased by 5.3% in 2015 from the previous year. According to the ‘Crimes in India – 2015’ report released on Tuesday by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) economic crimes in the entire country had risen to 1.50 lakh from 1.42 lakh in 2014.

The economic crimes include criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and counterfeiting.

In 2015 there were 18,548 criminal breach of trust cases reported under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) registered in the 29 States in India, while there were 670 cases from union territories. This shows a reduction in criminal breach of trust cases as in 2014 it was higher at 19,266 cases in the States and 716 cases registered in union territories.

The cases of cheating had however increased by 5.5% in 2015. The cases for cheating had increased to 1.15 lakh in 2015 from 1.09 lakh a year earlier due to a rise at both the State and Union Territory level.

Forgery crime, however, saw a large 23.13% rise in cases in 2015. The forgery cases registered in 2015 stood at 13,846 as against 11,245 cases in 2014. This as forgery cases had significantly increased among States with 13,354 cases registered in 2015 as against 10,859 cases in 2014.

Counterfeiting, however, had seen a decline in 2015 registering a 16.3% decline during the year. Total counterfeiting crimes had declined to 1,701 cases in 2015 from 1,979 cases in 2014.

Rajasthan had the highest economic crime rate at 37.4, accounting for a large 18% of the economic crimes in the country. It was followed by closely by Delhi with a crime rate of 34.2 and accounted for 4.8% of the total economic crimes in India.

Other states with high economic crime include Uttar Pradesh with 9.7% percentage share in India, Maharashtra at 9.1%, Telangana with 6%, Karnataka 5.6% and Bihar 6%.   

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had released the 63rd edition of ‘Crime in India – 2015’ on Tuesday.

The NCRB publishes the report on annual basis, since the first edition published for the year 1953. The report contains information on police recorded criminal cases pertaining to the calendar year 2015. The data for the publication has been collected from 36 States/UTs and 53 Mega Cities (having population of more than 10 lakhs).