Srinagar- Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a considerable surge in economic offenses, including forgery, cheating, and fraud over the past four years, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Economic crimes typically involve individuals or organizations using deceit, manipulation, or other fraudulent means to achieve financial gain. Some common economic offenses include corruption, embezzlement, fraud and money laundering.
As per the NCRB data, J&K reported 621 economic crime cases in 2019. This number slightly decreased to 611 in 2020. However, in 2021, instances of economic offenses rose to 669.
Shockingly, in 2022, the region recorded the highest number of economic offenses, surpassing 976 cases, thereby indicating an increase of 57 percent from 2019. The cases include criminal breach of trust, counterfeiting, forgery, cheating and fraud.
Even though the crime branch wing of the Jammu and Kashmir police has launched a major assault on economic offenses, the effort has failed to yield positive results, as indicated by the NCRB data.
An official from the crime branch in Kashmir told Kashmir Observer that the tough actions taken by the police have discouraged “unscrupulous elements” from indulging in such activities.
“We have created a separate wing for handling these crimes, and strong actions are being taken. The public must cooperate with the police to prevent these crimes,” the official said.
Notably, in 2020, the Union Territory administration ordered the establishment of an independent Economic Offences Wing (EOW) within the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Last year, the government designated the offices of six divisions within the Crime Branch Jammu and Kashmir as Police Stations specifically intended for the registration and investigation of various economic offenses, with special attention to cybercrimes.
These wings included Special Crime Wing (SCW), Jammu; Special Crime Wing (SCW), Srinagar; Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Jammu; Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Srinagar; Cyber Crime Investigation Centre for Excellence (CICE), Jammu, and Cyber Crime Investigation Centre for Excellence (CICE), Srinagar.
According to the NCRB report, over 62 cases of Criminal Breach of Trust under Sections 406 to 409 of the IPC were registered in 2022.
Additionally, the report highlighted two cases of counterfeiting and 912 cases related to forgery, cheating, and fraud within the union territory in the same year.
The J&K police carried out investigation in 1,956 pending cases from the preceding year (2021) and over 1044 cases related to the economic offense were disposed-of.
Furthermore, 154 cases of economic offenses were reopened for investigation by the police, while 129 cases were transferred to other states or agencies during the same period.
The report also mentioned that 192 cases concluded last year due to false final reports.
Moreover, the police resolved 1,044 cases pertaining to economic offenses over the course of the year.
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