Bengaluru: The number of women arrested for alleged involvement in economic offences was the highest in 2021 in the last five years, according to NCRB data for 2017-21. The women though comprised less than 5% of the total arrests for economic offences last year. A total of 6,606 women were arrested for economic offences in 2021, up from 5,327 in 2020. While 6,471 women were arrested under the same head in 2019, it was 5,933 in 2018 and 6,091 in 2017, says the data. During all five years, they accounted around 4-5% of the total arrests.
According to police, cases of women indulging in economic crimes are very less but they are now being used more and more in economic offences like vishing. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Umesh Kumar Yadav said many a times, women end up being booked for economic offences as they will be partners in the delinquent establishments.
“They would be directors or partners or high ranking management officials. In such cases, their name will be added to the list of accused or suspects automatically,” Kumar said, adding that such examples can be seen in cases of misuse of different government funds.
Kumar, however, said that involvement of women is seen more in cases of debit/credit card frauds and loan apps. “These days, miscreants are hiring more and more women to do the tele-calling part of the offence. The best example is the Chinese app cases where women were employed to call customers and convince them into taking loans with stringent conditions,” he said.
Public prosecutor from Bengaluru P Prasanna Kumar said that other economic offences where women’s role could be seen are fraud and forgery cases related to banks and other financial institutions and money laundering cases.
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