New Delhi:
In yet another case that highlights the poor safety records in India, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped and set on fire by her neighbour in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district. The girl, who was referred to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, is battling for life. According to police, the accused barged into the girl’s house when she was alone and raped her. Before the girl could regain her senses, the man brought kerosene from his house and set her on fire. The accused did so to apparently destroy the evidence of the crime., Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Alok Jaiswal said that the accused has been arrested and an FIR was lodged on the complaint of the family member.
The recently released NCRB data showed disturbing, upward trend of crime against women. As many as 3,59,849 cases of crime against women were registered across the country in 2017, continuing the upward trend for the third consecutive year, the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released showed. In 2015, 3,29,243 cases of crimes against women were registered and 3,38,954 cases were registered in 2016. The cases categorised as crimes against women include murder, rape, dowry death, suicide abetment, acid attack, cruelty against women and kidnapping, etc. According to the NCRB data for 2017, which was released after a delay of more than a year, the maximum cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh (56,011) -- the country's most populated state.
Majority of cases under crimes against women were registered under “cruelty by husband or his relatives" at 27.9%, followed by “assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty" at 21.7%, “kidnapping and abduction of women" at 20.5% and “rape" accounting for only 7.0%. While the “crime rate" is defined as “offences registered per one lakh people", Assam recorded the highest crime rate of 143 in the country in 2017. Odisha and Telangana came in second, recording a crime rate of 94 each, followed by Haryana at 88 and Rajasthan at 73.
