One in every five arrested in Delhi is a habitual offender

One in every five arrested in Delhi has been caught committing crimes more than once, government statistics have revealed. Bigger states like Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh had very less habitual offenders among those arrested in 2006, while the union territories of Lakshadweep and Dadra and Nagar Haveli did not have any such arrest.

Out of the total 54,198 persons arrested in Delhi under various charges of the IPC, a whopping 43,674 were new to the 'world of crime' while 10,524 had committed offences more than once.

According to the statistics released by National Crime Records Bureau for 2006, there were 1,249 arrested persons in the capital who were convicted at least three times or more. While 6,443 (11.9 per cent) of the arrested were convicted once, 2,832 (5.2 per cent) were convicted twice, the statistics revealed.

Other cities with a high number of habitual offenders were Jamshedpur (592), Bhopal (399), Hyderabad (385) and Jabalpur (269). Around 68.8 per cent of those arrested in Jamshedpur were habitual offenders followed by Indore (58.3 per cent) and Jabalpur (50.2 per cent).

"The fight between haves and have-nots is one of the causes for relapsing into crime by criminals. Consumerism and the existing socio-economic scenario are also a cause for increasing crimes," psychologist Sameer Parekh said.

While 1,80,446 persons in Bihar were arrested under various charges of the Indian Penal Code, only 5,121 were convicted earlier and this included 56 people who were convicted thrice or more.

In Maharashtra, out of a total of 2,90,546 arrested persons in 2006, only 10,884 (3.7 per cent) were habitual offenders. Among the 10,884 offenders, 378 were convicted thrice or more.

Uttar Pradesh had arrested 5,950 habitual offenders, which included 215 who were convicted thrice or more. The total number of those arrested in the state is 2,17,758.

There was a decline of 8.7 per cent in the number of habitual offenders in 2006, with 2,32,182 such arrests compared to 2,34,219 in 2005, the data said.

Out of the total 26,53,683 arrests, 24,21,506 (91.3 per cent) were first time offenders while 1,73,421 (6.5 per cent) were convicted once before. Only 0.5 per cent, that is 14,453, were convicted three times or more.

Mizoram has reported the highest recidivism, the habit of relapsing into crimes, of 46.2 per cent of the total 2,215 arrested being habitual offenders. Among those arrested in the state, 320 were convicted once, 407 twice and 297 convicted thrice or more.

The statistics revealed that in 2002 and 2004, there was an increase in the number of habitual offenders, but the next two years showed a decline in the trend.