Mumbai has witnessed an exponential growth in kidnapping cases, which have tripled over the last one year.

According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau in its ‘Crime In India 2015’ report, Mumbai showed a whopping 192 per cent increase in kidnapping and abductions, with 1,583 incidents of kidnapping reported in 2015 as against 541 incidents in 2014.

The total number of kidnappings in India grew by only 7.5 per cent from 77,237 to 82,999 incidents. In urban centres with a population of more than 10 lakh, the total cases of kidnapping increased by 23 per cent from 15,787 to 19,455. Delhi, which registers the most kidnapping cases in urban areas, showed only a 10 per cent increase from 6,016 in 2014 to 6,630 in 2015.

The data for Mumbai did not give a break-up of the age of individuals who were kidnapped.

The magnitude of the increase in kidnapping cases can be gauged from the fact that the crime rate for kidnapping in Mumbai spiked from 2.9 cases to 8.6 cases per one lakh residents.

After kidnapping, the booking of people under section 377 has shown the highest increase. The total number of cases registered under the section, which criminalised sexual activities “against the order of nature”, including homosexuality, increased by 14 per cent from 24 in 2014 to 59 in 2015.

The total number of cognisable crimes registered under the IPC in Mumbai increased from 40,361 in 2014 to 42,940 in 2015. Theft is the most widely occurring crime in Mumbai, with 10,422 incidents in 2015 compared to 10,101 incidents in 2014.

While the number of murder cases came down from 183 to 169, rape and assault against women grew from 607 to 712 and 1,626 to 2,008 respectively from 2014 to 2015.

zeeshan.shaikh@expressindia.com

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