More than 12,000 incidents of cybercrime were reported in 2016, but nearly the same number of such crimes carried forward from the previous years had not been investigated, the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said.
In 2016, 12,317 such incidents were reported and in 2015 the figure stood at 11,592, a jump of 6.3%.
Only in 30% cases reported in 2016, the police or the investigating agency filed a charge sheet. In absolute numbers, 7,990 persons were arrested for the crimes, which included 147 women and charge sheets were filed against 4,913 accused.
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Illegal gain (5,987 incidents) and revenge (1,056) were the two top motives that accounted for cybercrimes. Sexual exploitation (686), insulting the modesty of women (569) and causing disrepute (448) constituted 13% of the crimes.
There were 40 cases that were done with a “political” motive and 14 cases pertained to sale and purchase of illegal drugs. There were 149 cases of inciting crimes against a community and three cases of inciting hate crimes against the country.
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Of the 829 persons arrested for transmission of obscene and sexually explicit content, charge sheets were filed only against 484.
Uttar Pradesh with 2,639 cases reported the highest number of incidents accounting for 21.4%, followed by Maharashtra with 2,380, Karnataka 1,101 and Rajasthan 941cases.
There were 6,818 cases registered under various sections of the Information Technology Act that pertains to sending offensive and false information.
Crimes against State
Tamil Nadu topped the list when it came to booking people for committing crimes against the State, which includes cases of sedition. Of the 6,986 cases registered in 2016, 1,827 or 26% cases were reported from Tamil Nadu, followed by U.P. 1,414, Haryana 1,286 and Assam 343 cases. While 35 cases of sedition were reported in 2016, there were 31 cases related to imputation and assertions prejudicial to national integration.
Under the Official Secrets Act, 30 cases were reported and 922 cases were registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2016, the police across India were investigating 12,637 cases of crimes against the State, of this 5,651 had been pending since 2015.
Meghalaya with 42 cases registered the most number of cases under Sections pertaining to sedition and waging war against the country.