Hyderabad bucked the trend of rising crimes in the State in 2017, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.
Among metropolitan cities, Hyderabad registered one of the lowest crime rates of 2.7% of the overall national figure, which is comparable to smaller cities like Nagpur, Kozhikode and Coimbatore. Hyderabad recorded a lower percentage of crimes in comparison to even Pune, which is considered one of the safer cities in the country.
The NCRB data logs the number of cases filed under the Indian Penal Code and Special Local Laws from the information provided by the respective states.
The data for 2017 is being released after a delay of one year and includes more specific heads.
Under cyber-crimes against women and children, the NCRB has tabulated data under crime heads like cyber-blackmailing / threatening, cyber-pornography, cyber-stalking, defamation/morphing, fake profiles etc.
However, the red button ‘lynching’ cases have not been recorded in the data. “There is no specific IPC section for that. Unless there is a section for that, it will not be recorded,” said Arjun Reddy, a Telangana High Court lawyer.
Between 2015 and 2017, there was a 14% dip in crime rate in Hyderabad. In contrast, there was a 12% spike in crimes in the rest of Telangana.
The national capital, Delhi, maintained its record as crime capital with 40.4% of the crimes in metros occurring in the city. Bengaluru with 8.9%, Mumbai with 7.2%, and Chennai with 3.6% contributed significantly to the crime statistics in the metros.
Crimes against women spurted by 13.5% in the State between 2015 and 2017, while in Hyderabad, it dipped by 7.8%. However, the number of complaints of sexual harassment in workplaces went up from 24 in 2016 to 30 in 2017 in Hyderabad.
