Economic offences at pre-pandemic levels, led by a spike in cases from Telangana 

Crime

The number of economic offences reported to the police has climbed to pre-pandemic levels in most states after dipping in 2020 when the country was in some form of a lockdown for several months because of the COVID outbreak, the 2021 edition of the Crime in India report shows.

States such as Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha saw a rapid increase in the number of cases reported from the 2020 levels, as instances of suspected forgery, cheating and fraud rose, said the report released this week by the National Crime Records Bureau.

Mumbai, Hyderabad, Surat and Lucknow were among the metros and mini metros that reported the sharpest rise in the number of cases.

Here’s a look at some broad trends according to the report:

Telangana reports a sharp in cases

Not only did Telangana report a rapid increase in the number of cases in 2021, but the state was also among the few that witnessed a jump in cases reported in 2020 when most states saw reported economic offences fall.

The state accounted for 12 percent of the 174,013 cases reported during the year, which is disproportionately higher compared to its share of the population. Just about 3 percent of India’s population resides in Telangana. The state’s share of reported economic offences was 7 percent in 2019.

Rajasthan continued to register the highest number of economic offences, as it did in 2019 and 2020. Madhya Pradesh has also been reporting a rising number of economic offences, but its share in the total number of cases reported is small.

Every fifth case reported from metro cities

About 20 percent of the economic offences cases were reported from 19 metropolitan cities, each with a population of more than 2 million or more. Mumbai and Delhi, given the size of their population, top the list of cities reporting the highest number of cases.

Hyderabad has seen a rapid increase in cases, up 156 percent since 2019. Jaipur and Lucknow have also reported a sharp increase in the number of cases since 2019.

Hyderabad, Jaipur and Lucknow together account for 36 percent of the cases reported from the 19 cities, which is disproportionately large given that the corresponding population share of these cities is 12 percent.

Forgery, cheating and fraud are the most common economic offence

About 87 percent of the economic offences reported to the police involve forgery, cheating or fraud at the all-India level. Criminal breach of trust accounts for more than 12 percent of the cases reported to the police.

Forgery, cheating or fraud accounted for 95 percent or more of the economic offences reported in Bihar, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana compared to under 70 percent in Uttar Pradesh. Criminal breach of trust accounted for 30 percent of the economic offences reported in India’s most populous state.

Economic loss was under Rs 1 lakh in 50% of cases

Property loss was reported in more than 55 percent of the economic offence cases. These were due to criminal misappropriation, breach of trust and forgery, cheating and fraud.

In about 50 percent of the cases, the loss was reported to be Rs 1 lakh or less. But there were a few cases where the loss caused ran into crores of rupees. In 26 cases, the loss was more than Rs 100 crore and in another 22 cases, the loss was Rs 50-100 crore. Four cases involving losses of Rs 100 crore or more were reported from Bengaluru and 11 from Mumbai.

Violations of specific state laws

Apart from these, the Crime in India report provides data on cases reported under various laws that are administered by states and these include Mines and Minerals (development and regulation) Act and the Excise Act.

Over 50 percent of the 14,990 cases registered under the Mines and Minerals (development and regulation) Act in 2021 were in Tamil Nadu. Of the 678,998 cases registered under the Prohibition Act, 42 percent cases were registered in Gujarat and 31 percent in Tamil Nadu.

Of the 335,699 cases registered under the state excise laws, 33 percent were registered in Madhya Pradesh and 27 percent in Uttar Pradesh.