Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Deepak Maggu
There has been a decline of 8.0% in offenses against the State this year as compared to last year. According to the NCRB report for the year 2021, a total of 5164 cases have been registered, including sedition, violation of the Official Secrets Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
There has been a decline of 8.0% in offenses against the State this year as compared to last year. According to the NCRB report for the year 2021, a total of 5164 cases have been registered, including sedition, violation of the Official Secrets Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2020, there were 5,613 cases, and in 2019, there were 7,656. According to the NCRB data, the interesting thing is that 8,600 cases in the same category were still pending, which were investigated this year, and the case files of 3 cases were re-opened and investigated. So in this way, by including 5,164 new cases, now the total pending cases has become 13,767.
If we look at the nature of the offenses, then about 79.2 percent of the total cases, which were 4089 cases, were registered under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, followed by 814, which is about 15.8 percent of the cases, were registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). It is worth noting that in the year 2021, 76 sedition cases were registered, which is 3 more than in the year 2020, but the more interesting thing is that 29 sedition cases have been registered from Andhra Pradesh alone, which is just 0 in the year 2020. Manipur, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh were the top 3 states in the number of cases of sedition in the year 2020, but this time the cases of sedition have decreased in these states. This time, 3 compared to 12 in Assam, 7 compared to 15 in Manipur, and 3 cases of sedition compared to 7 registered in Uttar Pradesh in 2021. If we talk about the rest of the matters, 55 under the Official Secrets Act, 73 cases of offences falling under sections 121 to 123, and 57 cases under the category of offences against national integrity were registered in the year 2021.
If we look at the total cases of crime against the nation state-wise, Uttar Pradesh, with 1862 cases, is on the top, followed by Tamil Nadu 654, Assam 327, Jammu and Kashmir 313 and West Bengal 274. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh had the highest number of 29 cases in sedition cases, followed by Manipur and Nagaland 7, Haryana 5, Delhi 4, and Uttar Pradesh and Assam 3 each.
In the year 2021, Manipur recorded the highest number of cases under UAPA at 157, followed by Assam at 95, Jharkhand at 86, and Uttar Pradesh at 83. In the same union territory, 289 cases were registered in Jammu and Kashmir and 5 in Delhi under UAPA.
NCRB Report 2021 shows that offenses against the State are decreasing, but criminal cases of damage to public property still remain a matter of concern. At the same time, the cases of sedition are also a matter of concern. Although the matter of the inevitability of sedition is pending in the Supreme Court, this law may be abolished as early as next year.
