'Violent crime': Bihar better placed than UP, Maharashtra

Patna: In what could be a little solace for state government, the latest data released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) for the year 2015 has ranked Bihar at third place in the category of violent crime. In 2014, the state was ranked second in this category.

Altogether 35,754 cases of violent crimes like murder, attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping, dacoity, robbery, dowry deaths and riots were reported in Bihar in 2015. Although, the number stood at 34,277 in 2014, Bihar’s position improved on account of rise in crime in Maharashtra which “toppled” Bihar to find second place. Like in 2014, Uttar Pradesh remained at the top position in this category in 2015 too. Altogether 40,613 such cases were reported in Uttar Pradesh and 37,290 cases in Maharashtra in 2015.

However, Bihar saw a steep rise in number of cyber-crime cases. While the figure stood at 114 in 2014, it jumped to 242 in 2015.

On the other hand, Bihar came second in the category of murder by use of firearms while Uttar Pradesh topped. A total of 685 persons in Bihar were murdered by firearms in 2015. Of them, 632 were gunned down by unlicensed, crude and improvised country-made firearms. Uttar Pradesh topped the chart with 1,617 such killings while Jharkhand came third.

In the category of crime against children, Bihar showed a remarkable improvement. Only 381 such cases were reported in the state in 2015. As a result, Bihar performed better than states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and others in this category.

According to the NCRB data, 97 cases were lodged in Bihar against the police personnel in 2015. Of them, 92 were departmental cases and five criminal cases.