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NEW DELHI: In 2016, India recorded 106 rapes a day, once again highlighting the continuing rise in crimes against women in the country despite a series of court rulings and toughening of laws to deal with the menace.

A large number of those raped (2,116) were girls in the age-group of 0 to 12 years and in 36,859 (94.6%) of cases, offenders were known to the rape victims including neighbours, family members, relatives, husband/live-in partner, employer/co-worker etc.

The national capital Delhi witnessed the most rape cases at 1,996 , followed by 712 in Mumbai, 354 in Pune and 330 in Jaipur. The NCRB data released on Thursday said that crimes against women increased by 2.9% all over the country in 2016 with 4,737 rapes recorded through the year.

In all, 38,947 rape cases were registered across India in 2016, compared to 34,210 in 2015. Gang-rape cases reported in 2016 also increased to 2,167 from 2,113 in 2015. UP, which was ruled by SP in 2016, reported 14% of crimes (at 49,262 out of 3,38,954 cases, the most) against women, followed by Bengal (9.6%).

Out of the total 3,38,954 crimes against women registered in 2016, most of the women were victims of ‘cruelty by husband or relatives’ (32.6% of cases), followed by ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (25%), ‘kidnapping and abduction of women (19%) and ‘rape’(11.5%).

It turns out that 33,796 women/girls were also kidnapped/abducted in 2016 with the motive of compelling them to marry, with the most such (12,070) cases reported from UP.

Police officers say most of the abduction/kidnapping cases of girls who eloped with someone are also registered under kidnapping. The NCRB data reveals that 2,60,304 cases of crimes against women were sent for trial in courts in 2016. Conviction was secured in 23,094 cases. Also reported in 2016 were 206 cases of acid attack on women, while 7,236 women were stalked.

Among 19 metros analysed by NCRB, Delhi, followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru, reported most number of crimes against women — 13,803 out of 41,761, also seeing the most stalking cases at 669.

