Nagaland was 'corruption-free' in 2018: NCRB data

Nagaland was 'corruption-free' in 2018: NCRB data

Nagaland was 'corruption-free' in 2018: NCRB data

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) latest Crime in India 2018 compendium, not a single case of corruption was officially registered in Nagaland in 2018. (Representative Image: Zelandia from Pixabay)

 

Also no Motor Vehicle, Forests, Pollution and Essential Commodities Acts’ offences
 

Imkong Walling
Dimapur | January 11


Corruption as a term has been an omnipresent refrain that has come to be associated with governance in Nagaland. It existing at every level of governance or government has become the talk yet tangible evidence has seldom surfaced and even official data affirms so. 


If India’s crime statistics is to be believed, Nagaland was corruption-free in 2018. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) latest Crime in India 2018 compendium, not a single case of corruption was officially registered in Nagaland in 2018. 


The compendium, which was released by the NCRB on January 8, stated that the North-east state reported/registered nil cases cognizable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Further, no financial and economic crime was also registered. 


Electricity has been another sector that has returned poor reports year after year with a myriad of problems ranging from pilferage and meter tampering to willful defaulters and poor infrastructure affecting the sector. However, the state reported not a single offence cognizable under the Electricity Act, 2003. In 2017, the state reported nil cases under the two Acts. 


Nil was the record for offences relating to the Motor Vehicle, Forests, Wildlife, Pollution, Food and Essential Commodities Acts. 


As per the NCRB, the data was based on crime reports of 2018 submitted by the states and union territories. 
The clean sheet was however tainted by occurrence of other crimes. Nagaland state overall registered a total of 1223 crimes cognizable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), increasing from 1068 cases reported from the state in 2017. It occurred at a rate of 57.3 per lakh of population. 1277 was the number attributed for the number of victims affected by the offences. 

 

Murder, rape, abduction, extortion
Murder, kidnapping and abduction are clubbed broadly as ‘Violent Crimes’ by the NCRB.  As per the data, 39 people became victims (15 female and 24 male) of murder in 2018 in the state. The victims included 6 children, of which 5 were female. 


Motive was unknown in 19 of the instances, while 2 were attributed as political, 1 to insurgency and another personal vendetta. A total of 31 cases were registered by the state police in connection to the murders. The total in 2017 was 36. 


A total of 10 rape cases were registered in which the number of victims were 11.  


The number of kidnappings and abductions rose to 90 from 66 in 2017. As per the data, the number of victims was 101 (58 male, 43 female or 50 children and 51 adults). 31 of the 50 child victims were female. Of the 90 instances, 13 involved kidnapping for ransom of 15 individuals. 


The total number of persons reported kidnapped & abducted as on December 31, 2018, stood at 164, including 63 “unrecovered victims” from previous years. The data also stated that 113 (56 male, 57 female) persons were recovered alive and 1 male recovered dead in 2018.


“Unrecovered Kidnapped & Abducted Persons,” including previous years’, stood at 50 (27 male, 23 female) at the end of the year. 


As far as frequency was concerned, theft was the most common registering as many 419 such instances. More than half or 268 of the instances were motor vehicle thefts rising from 249 reported in 2017. 
Extortion & Blackmailing rose from 143 reported cases in 2017 to 192 in 2018 affecting 195 victims. 

 

SLL offences
An additional 552 cases were also registered under other Special Acts & Local Laws (SLL) relating to illicit arms, unlawful activities, liquor, narcotics and so on. 


However, the number of cases registered under the Arms Act dropped to 80 in 2018 from 117 in 2017. Offences under the Explosives Act did not feature in the list but there were 10 registered under the Explosive Substances Act, 1884 & 1908. Under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (broadly clubbed under offences against the state), 8 cases were registered. 


The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act registered 1 case (8 victims), Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act- 9 cases (11 victims) and Information Technology Act- 2 cases (2 victims). 


Guess it was the state Assembly elections 2018, 7 cases were registered under the Representation of the People Act. The Gambling Act registered 10 cases, while 87 were recorded as “other SLL crimes.” 


A significant jump in liquor offences was observed with as many as 272 cases registered under the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act. 170 were the total NLTP cases in 2017. Narcotics, Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act offences dropped to 66 from 81 in 2017.