Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: Passion crime killed more people than personal vendetta and property disputes did in Jammu and Kashmir last year, even as the number of murders fell significantly.
Love affairs and sexual causes were responsible for 11 murders in 2012, according to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau of India.
That is a 37.5 per cent increase from the year 2011, when just 8 people were murdered for these reasons.
However, there was an overall 26 per cent drop in murders in 2012 – only 124 persons were murdered against 169 the previous year.
The NCRB reports also shows that in 2012 the highest number of murders – 67 – were simply attributed to “other causes”. At the second number are murders in militancy-related activities or “extremist violence” – 23.
There was only one political murder last year, while the data shows that nine (9) people were killed in property disputes and six (6) for personal vendetta (and gains each).
The highest number of people murdered belong to the age group of 30-50 years, the statistics show. Next is the age group 18-30 – 44 persons were killed.
The maximum number of those murdered were males, the report says.
Passion also surpassed gains and property disputes as the motive for murder in states like Andhra Pradesh (445), UP (325), Maharashtra (254), Punjab (83), Himachal Pradesh (10) and Nagaland (2).
The NCRB report also says there were 1093 kidnappings last year in the Jammu and Kashmir state.
