Shocking! Incest rape cases up by 30 pc in India

In a startling finding, the latest crime data released by government shows there has been over 30 per cent increase in incest rape cases in 2009 over the previous year.

Cases of incest rape have "increased by 30.7 per cent from 309 cases in 2008 to 404 cases in 2009", said the 'Crime in India-2009' report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Also out of total rape cases of 21,397, 94.9 per cent involved offenders who were known to the victims.

According to the statistics, Chhattisgarh topped the list with most number of incest cases. The state recorded 107 such cases in 2009, accounting for the highest or 26.5 per cent of the total such cases reported in the country.

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Maharashtra came second with 77 such reported incidents, followed by Rajasthan (36), Jharkhand (22), Gujarat (18), Haryana (12) and Himachal Pradesh (10).

Delhi bagged the dubious record of being the only union territory where such crimes were reported that year. A total of 19 such cases reported in the national capital in 2009.

Of the total 404 such crimes, 182 were committed against victims aged 18-30 years.

In the age group of 14-18 years, there were 95 victims, while the figure was 56 among the age-group of 10-14 years and 24 among those aged below 10 years.

The country witnessed 21,397 rape incidents that involved 21,413 victims.

Of them 2,470, or 11.5 per cent were girls under 15 years of age while 2,912 or 15.6 per cent were teenaged girls belonging to the age group of 15-18 years.

A total of 12,812, or 59.8 per cent were women in the age-group of 18-30 years, while 3,124 (14.6 per cent) victims were in the age-group of 30-50 years, revealed the report.

Shockingly, in 94.9 per cent, or 20,311, cases the offenders were known to the victims.

Parents or close family members were involved in 2.0 per cent (404 out of 20,311) of these cases, while neighbours were involved in 35.1 per cent (7,129) cases and in 7.3 per cent or 1,482 cases, the culprits were relatives, said the report.

Among the states, Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of rape cases (2,998), accounting for 14 per cent of all such cases reported in the country.

And among 35 mega cities, Delhi city reported 23.8 per cent (404 out of 1,696) of total rape cases in 2009. This means one in every four rapes occurred in the national capital, according to the NCRB figures.

Besides Delhi, the other cities which reported a large number of rape incidents are Mumbai (182), Bhopal (117), Jabalpur (76), Jaipur (69) and Pune (67).