Nagpur: With the recent spurt in crime in Nagpur, both high profile, grave and petty illegal activities, the city holds the dubious distinction of scoring highest. Contrary to the common belief that it is Mumbai that can have maximum crime rate, it is Nagpur which leads the chart state wide. The crime rate per lakh population in Nagpur is 407 where Mumbai stands lower at 340 cases every lakh population.

This is followed by Thane at 299, Navi Mumbai with 280 and Pune at 267. But in absolute numbers, Mumbai tops the chart, followed by Pune and Thane. Nagpur is fourth, and Navi Mumbai fifth. The ranking per lakh population are of the big cities. Some smaller cities have a higher rate, but are not being considered here because of the wide population mismatch.

For the period 2011-15, for which crime data was released on Monday by the state CID, Mumbai recorded 1.8 lakh instances of crime, followed by Pune (67,609), Thane (60,859), Nagpur (47,143), and Navi Mumbai (28,098). The population of these cities are 1.26 crore, 57 lakh, 51 lakh, 27 lakh and 21 lakh.

Year-on-year, Mumbai saw an over 6% rise in crime from 2014 to 2015 (from 40,361 cases to 42,940). Crimes that increased include rape, molestation, kidnapping, theft, breach of trust, cheating, counterfeiting, causing death by negligence, extortion and unnatural offences.

“A decline in crime may be a reflection of fewer complaints being registered. If there is no correlation with crime, there is something wrong. For example, a rise in crime often is a reflection of that more victims are coming forward to register FIRs,” said Maharashtra’s additional director general of police (state CID, Pune) Sanjay Kumar.

On conviction rates remaining low, Praja project director Milind Muske said the reasons include lack of coordination between the investigating agency and the prosecution. “Abroad, the investigating agency works in tandem with the public prosecutor, which helps in building a watertight case.The other factor is delaying the filing of chargesheet, which takes a mental toll on the victim, and often victims go hostile when cases come up for hearing.”