india

Updated: Oct 23, 2019 00:52 IST

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs, released its Crime in India 2017 report on Monday. This report is the official source of crime statistics in the country. The 2017 report gives statistics on “Crimes by anti-national elements” for the first time. The statistics show that “anti-national elements” committed 1450 crimes under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special Local Laws (SLL). The total number of crime incidents under IPC and SLL in 2017 was 5 million. This means that crimes committed by “anti-national elements” accounted for 0.02% of total IPC and SLL crimes in the country.

“Earlier crimes committed by terrorists/naxalites/north-east insurgents were not recorded separately, so nobody had any idea about the magnitude and kinds of crimes committed by anti-national elements in various parts of the country. So, when the NCRB was revising its proforma for collecting crime statistics, we included these categories this time. This exercise was done in consultation with various states/UTs, NGOs, researchers and other stake holders. This should give a better idea of the activities of such elements,” said Dr Ish Kumar, former director of NCRB.

“Anti-national elements” have been classified into three categories by NCRB: North-East Insurgents; Naxalites/Left Wing Extremists (LWEs); and Terrorists (including Jihadi terrorists). These three categories accounted for 421, 652, and 377 crimes committed by “anti-national elements” respectively. Of the 1450 crimes committed by “anti-national elements”, 24 were under Sections 121, 121 A, 123 and 124A of the IPC, which are classified under the Offences against State category. The category-wise break up of crimes under Offences against State is 21 for North-East Insurgents, three for Naxalites/LWEs and zero for Terrorists (including Jihadi terrorists). The total number of crimes committed under various sections of Offences against the State crimes in the country in 2017 was 9013. This means that “anti-national elements” had a share of 0.27% in total crimes committed under the Offences against State category.

No crimes by “anti-national elements” were recorded under The Information Technology Act/Cyber Terrorism, 2000.

Among the 377 IPC and SLL crimes committed by terrorists (including Jihadi terrorists), 169 were reported from Jammu and Kashmir. Manipur accounted for 199 crimes under this category.

Manipur leads all states and union territories in crimes committed by North-East Insurgents (317) and Terrorists (including Jihadi Terrorists), while Chhattisgarh saw the highest number of crimes (492) committed by Naxalites/LWEs.

The report also gives details of attacks by “anti-national elements” in 2017. As many as 269 civilians and police/state/army personnel were killed in these attacks in 2017. The number of extremists/attackers killed in 2017 is 271, while another 1285 surrendered or were arrested.

More than 50% of the 783 attacks by “anti-national elements” were on police stations or camps. Naxalites/LWEs were responsible for 308 out of these 413 attacks.

“Anti-national elements” snatched 1845 arms, including 1154 pistols, 66 AK 47/56/74/87 type rifles and three Light Machine Guns/Other Machine Guns from police and central armed police forces in 2017. They also snatched 13094 bullets (ammunition) including 7671 bullets for AK type rifles. Among items recovered from “anti-national elements” there was Rs 1.26 crore of cash, 12 kg of drugs and 30 radio sets. The number against “literature recovered” is 242.