Kolkata safest among India's metros: NCRB

Kolkata: According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report of 2020, Kolkata is the safest among metropolitan cities in India.

The NCRB report of 2020, published on Tuesday, states that the number of crimes committed in Kolkata has gone down compared to figures of 2018 and 2019. In 2018, about 21481 crimes were committed across the city whereas the figure stood at 19638 in 2019 and 18277 in 2020. The rate of submission of charge-sheet is 95.1 per cent. In terms of crime rate per one lakh population, Kolkata is the safest city with 129.5 per cent of crimes committed. The crime rate is much higher in Chennai that stands at 1937.1 per cent while in Delhi, it stood at 1608.6 per cent. Compared to the other metropolitan cities, the crime rate against women in Kolkata is also less and stands at 29.5 per cent. In terms of crimes against women, Lucknow is the most unsafe city for women with 190.7 per cent. In 2020, about 2001 complaints regarding crimes against women were reported against 67.9 lakh population in Kolkata. The figure of Lucknow is 2,636 against only 13.8 lakh population. The rate of submitting charge-sheet after an investigation is also low for Lucknow with only 72 per cent. The rate of crimes against women in Delhi is 129.1 per cent. In 2020, across Delhi, 9,782 complaints were registered against 75.8 lakh population, stated the report.

The rate of deaths due to negligence in road accidents is also much lower in Kolkata compared to other cities.

In 2020, the number of cases registered for death due to negligence in road accidents stood at 204. About 218 people died in such accidents. The parentage of the fatal road accidents due to negligence is 1.4 per cent which is the lowest among all metropolitan cities. The report also reflects that in 2020 no hit-and-run cases happened in Kolkata. Comparing the figures, Delhi is the highest in terms of the number of fatal accidents due to negligence with 1130 cases with 1156 victims. In terms of fatal road accidents due to negligence, Jaipur is the most unsafe city with 16.5 per cent of such cases. The highest number of hit-and-run cases among the metropolitan cities is 514 cases registered in Delhi in which 519 people died. However, in Lucknow 11.3 per cent of such cases were registered.

Meanwhile, in a year impacted massively by Covid and corresponding lockdowns, the overall crime in the country increased by 28 per cent in 2020 over the non-pandemic year of 2019, the latest report by the NCRB highlights. This rise, however, has largely been attributed to crimes registered for Covid-19 violations, as the number of other crimes actually decreased in 2020 compared to 2019.

The NCRB released its crime data for 2020 on Tuesday. The report lists a total of 66,01,285 cognizable crimes comprising 42,54,356 Indian Penal Code (IPC) violations and 23,46,929 crimes under Special and Local Laws (SLL). It shows an increase of 14,45,127 (28%) in registration of cases over 2019 (51,56,158 cases). The crime rate (number of cases registered per one lakh population) has also increased from 385.5 in 2019 to 487.8 in 2020.

"Major increase was seen in cases registered under Section 188 of the IPC (Disobedience to Order Duly Promulgated by Public Servant) from 29,469 cases in 2019 to 6,12,179 cases in 2020 and under 'Other IPC Crimes' from 2,52,268 cases in 2019 to 10,62,399 cases in 2020," the NCRB report says.