Travelling by trains is getting riskier by the day as crimes under Indian Penal Code (IPC) witnessed an increase of over 34% in two years, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report for 2016.
Incidence of IPC crimes, which include murder, rape, rioting, kidnapping and robbery among others, registered by Government Railway Police (GRP) in 2016 was 42,388 in comparison with 39,239 in 2015 and 31,609 in 2014.
Among the states, UP tops the chart with the maximum number of 8,293 cases, followed by Maharashtra (7,358), Madhya Pradesh (5,082), Delhi (4,306) and Bihar (2,287).
The data reflects crimes reported between January 1 and December 31, 2016.
In 2015, Maharashtra (7,277 cases out of 39,239 cases) was on top followed by UP (7,168 cases), Madhya Pradesh (4,461 cases), Delhi (3,356 cases) and Bihar (2,182 cases).
During 2016, among IPC crimes, maximum cases were registered under ‘theft’ accounting for 33,682 out of 42,388 cases. It is followed by robbery (1,069) and kidnapping and abduction (280).
Around 236 cases of murder, 125 of attempt to murder, 79 of rape, 53 of dacoity and 112 of rioting were reported by Government Railway Police (GRP)-a force drawn from state police which has responsibility to maintain law & order in railways and railway premises.
Around 19,564 cases across the country were reported under special & local laws (SLL) crimes, like violation of prohibition act or gambling act or electricity act, by GRP in 2016 in which Kerala tops the chart with 7,371 cases (7,151 cases under Kerala Police Act and 88 cases under COTPA Act), followed by Gujarat (7,371), UP (2,625) and Bihar (1,235).
Interestingly, maximum number of 3,815 cases (out of total 4,023) under prohibition act were reported by GRP in Gujarat, followed by Maharashtra (114) and Kerala (87).
Under excise act, maximum of 1,094 cases (out of total 1,991) were reported in Bihar, followed by 303 in Punjab, 222 in UP and 170 in Haryana.
Most of the cases under arms act were reported from UP (1,092 out of total 1,610), followed by Rajasthan (199) and Punjab (146). Around 312 cases were registered under Juvenile Justice Act of which 209 were in Tamil Nadu and 82 in Telangana.