In 99.8 pc rape cases, offenders were known to victims
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Sept 15: Jammu and Kashmir has registered an increase in overall crime cases as well as crime against women as the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs released latest edition of its annual report ‘Crime in India’ covering crime statistics for the year 2020.
According to the report, crime was up by 15 percent in the Union Territory of J&K in 2020 as compared to the previous year while crime against women rose by about 11 percent from 2019 to 2020.
J&K and Ladakh combined saw 29,314 crime cases in 2020 as against 25,408 cases in 2019. Ladakh alone recorded 403 crime cases in 2020.
Similarly, crime against women in Jammu and Kashmir also rose from 3,069 cases in 2019 to 3,414 in 2020 showing an increase of 11 percent notwithstanding a decline of 8.3 percent such cases at the national level.
Majority of cases under crime against women under Indian Penal Code (IPC) or Special Local Laws (SLL) were registered under ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’, ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’, ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ and ‘Rape’, etc.
As per the NCRB report, the year of 2020 registered 247 cases of rape, 783 of kidnapping and abduction of women, 349 of cruelty by husband or his relatives, nine dowry deaths, 24 cases of abetment to suicide, 1744 cases of assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, 10 cases of attempt to rape, etc.
A total of 247 rape cases were reported in Jammu Kashmir Union Territory and two in Ladakh UT in the year 2020 (from January 1 to December 31). The victims included four girls below the age of 18 years. In majority cases, the rape victims were in the age group of 18 to 30 years (180 cases), followed by 30-45 years (55 cases) and 45-60 years (nine cases).
Astonishingly, in all the rape cases except one, the offenders were known to the victims, either through family or friends. In 26 cases, the offender was family member while in 216 cases, the offender was either friend or neighbor or employer or other known person. There was only one case where the victim did not know the accused.
In the year 2020, there were total 783 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women against 775 in the previous year. Among the 783 cases, 456 kidnapping and abductions were done to compel the victim for marriage while in 10 cases, there was an attempt to rape.
Similarly, the NCRB report reveals that 195 cases were registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Girl child victim only).
As per the report, a total of 3,71,503 cases of crime against women were registered across India during 2020, showing a decline of 8.3 percent over 2019 (4,05,326 cases).
These cases included ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’ (30.0 percent) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (23.0 percent, ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ (16.8 percent) and ‘Rape’ (7.5 percent). The crime rate registered per lakh women population is 56.5 in 2020 in comparison with 62.3 in 2019.
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