THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala tops in the crime rate in the country with 1,980.01 in 2016. The number of cases registered in the state also increased over the years: 6.1 lakh in 2014, 6.5 lakh in 2015 and 7.07 lakh in 2016. Of the total cases registered in the country, 14.7 per cent were registered in Kerala, according to the ‘Crime in India – 2016’ of the National Crime Records Bureau. The higher crime rate in Kerala is often attributed to the effective policing and people’s insistence on filing cases and the higher rate of suo motu cases registered by the state police.
With regard to cases related to political issues also, Kerala has the highest rate of 3.3 with 1,171 incidents during 2016. However, with regard to political murders, Kerala stands third after UP and Bihar. While 15 murders in the state in 2016 were attributed to political reasons, UP tops with 29 and Bihar with 26. According to the report, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 9.5 percent of total IPC crime reported in the country followed by Madhya Pradesh (8.9), Maharashtra (8.8) and Kerala (8.7).
Delhi reported the highest crime rate, 974.9, under IPC crimes, followed by Kerala, 727.6. The national average is 233.6. Kerala reported the highest number of cases of special and local laws-related crimes (24.1 per cent) , followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu with 15.5 per cent each. Kerala stands third with regard to the number of persons arrested during 2016. While 2,99,307 persons were arrested in Kerala, the number was 5,66,208 in UP and 3,27,965 in Maharashtra.
