Lucknow tops in under ₹1L economic offences: NCRB

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s capital has emerged as the top metropolitan city in the country in economic offences involving losses below Rs 1 lakh, according to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau.

The NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 report showed that Lucknow ranked first among 53 metropolitan cities in the “less than Rs 1 lakh” category under criminal breach of trust-related economic offences. The city recorded 251 such cases in 2024, the highest in the country.

Mumbai ranked second with 248 cases, while Bengaluru was third with 95 cases. Other cities reporting high numbers included Surat with 63 cases, Jaipur with 40 and Nagpur with 32.

The report further stated that Lucknow registered a total of 312 criminal breach of trust cases in 2024. Apart from the 251 cases involving losses below Rs 1 lakh, another 61 involved losses between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. Notably, the city did not record any breach of trust cases involving losses above Rs 10 lakh during the year.

Overall, Lucknow recorded 1,732 economic offence cases in 2024, down from 2,446 in 2023 and 3,702 in 2022, indicating a declining trend in total economic crimes over the past three years.

“Unsecured lending, partnerships, commission-based work and local trade dealings are risky in Lucknow,” said a Gujarat-based businessman, requesting anonymity.

However, despite the decline in overall cases, the city continued to report a high economic offence rate of 59.7 per lakh population in 2024, considerably above the average rate of 37.5 recorded across metropolitan cities. The chargesheet filing rate in Lucknow stood at 50.8%, according to NCRB data.

In other UP cities, NCRB data showed that Kanpur recorded 95 cases involving losses below Rs 1 lakh, while 11 involved losses between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. Eight cases involved losses between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh.

Ghaziabad recorded 12 such cases in 2024. Of these, two involved losses below Rs 1 lakh, eight involved losses between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, and two involved losses ranging between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh.