J&K has witnessed a significant rise in the economic offence cases in 2022 as compared to previous years, the data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has suggested. The Union Territory (UT) witnessed registration of 976 cases under such crimes in 2022. The number was 669 in 2021 and 611 in 2020. The UT in 2019 had witnessed 621 cases under the category.
As per the data, while 62 cases were registered under criminal breach of trust under Sections 406 to 409 of the IPC, at least two cases of counterfeiting under Sections 231-243, 255 and 489A to 489E were registered. A whopping 912 cases were registered under forgery, cheating and fraud under Sections 420, 465, 468, 471, 231-243, 255 and 489A to 489E.
J&K witnessed 12 cases under criminal breach of trust in which loss to the complainant was less than Rs 1 lakh, 21 cases in which loss was Rs 1 to Rs 10 lakh and one case in which loss was between Rs 10 and Rs 50 lakh.
As many as 119 complainants suffered a loss of less than Rs 1 lakh under forgery, cheating and fraud and 145 complainants suffered a loss Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Twenty suffered loss of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh and two suffered loss of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Interestingly, the J&K administration had in May last year declared the offices of six wings of the Crime Branch, J&K, as police stations “for the purpose of registration and investigation” of varied economic offences besides cybercrimes. These included one offices each in Jammu and Srinagar of Special Crime Wing, Economic Offences Wing and Cyber Crime Investigation Centre for Excellence.
It is believed that due to the Covid outbreak in 2020 and 2021, the rate of economic offences was low as compared to 2022. There were 1,956 pending cases under economic offences, which the police investigated in 2022. At least 129 cases were transferred to other states or agencies. A total of 1,044 cases were disposed of in 2022.
