This time too Kerala has a ‘distinct’ place in the national crime statistics.
The new data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), overlooking the fact that the number of cases getting reported in the state was high, shows that Kerala reported the highest crime rate (455.8 per cent), based on the IPC crimes in the year 2012, followed by Madhya Pradesh (298.8 per cent), Tamil Nadu (294.8 per cent) and Puducherry (291 per cent).
Two cities of Kerala, Kochi and Kollam came ‘top’ in the IPC crime list.
Among the mega cities, Kochi reported the highest IPC crime rate of 817.9 per cent in the country, followed by Indore (762.6 per cent), Gwalior (709.3 per cent) and Kollam (637.3 per cent).
The state also stands third in the rate of violent crimes followed by Assam and Manipur.
The violent crime rate in the state was 42.7 per cent, as against the national rate 22.7 per cent while it is 54.2 per cent in Assam and 44.6 per cent in Manipur.
Kerala also reported the highest crime rate against Scheduled Tribes (25.6 per cent) as compared to the national average of 5.7 per cent while Rajasthan reported the highest crime rate against Scheduled Castes (45.5 per cent) as compared to the national average of 16.7 per cent.
The statistics show a steep increase in the number of juvenile conflicts in the country both under the IPC and SLL (Special and Local Laws) by 11.2 per cent and 42.3 per cent respectively during the year 2012 over 2011.
Incidence of cyber crimes also showed a sharp rise.
It increased by 57.1 per cent in 2012 as compared to 2011.
Kochi got the dubious distinction of leading the 35 metro cities of the country with the highest crime rate for the year 2010 as 1897.8.
Kollam recorded the highest suicide rate among the 52 major cities as per the 2011 data.
However DGP K S Balasubramanian said that Kerala’s crime rate was high as the number of cases reported in the state was high, not because of the number of crimes.
“The people in Kerala are more aware about the procedures for filing complaints when compared to the people of other states.
They have faith in justice, law and order.
Even petitions turn complaints here. But in many other states, complaints are registered very rarely. NCRB is just producing the statistics.There is no need to give over importance to it” he told Express.