Overview
- Kolkata logged 83.9 cognisable offences per lakh population in 2023, the lowest among 19 metros and its fourth straight year at the top, according to the NCRB’s Crime in India report.
- Reported crimes against women in the city fell from 1,890 in 2022 to 1,746 in 2023 with a rate of 25.7 per lakh, while murders rose slightly from 34 to 43.
- Trinamool Congress leaders hailed the figures and credited policing and technology, and Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma called the data a validation of sustained, team-based improvements.
- The BJP questioned the credibility of state-supplied numbers and alleged under-reporting, as the parents of the R.G. Kar rape-murder victim rejected the ‘safest city’ tag; opposition voices noted the NCRB functions under the Union Home Ministry.
- The report shows Kolkata’s charge-sheeting rate near 94.7–94.9 percent and contrasts its low crime rate with Kochi’s 3,192.4 and a metro average of 828, even as critics cite West Bengal’s high acid-attack count and gaps on political-violence deaths.