The National Crime Records Bureau finally published the crime data for the year 2017 late on Monday, after over a year’s delay. Though the NCRB is believed to have collected data on deaths due to lynching, killings ordered by khap panchayats and murders by influential people, the same has not included in the final report that was released.
The various motives that have made to the list and have been mentioned for murder are: disputes, dowry, road rage, class conflicts, communal or religious motives, personal vendetta or enmity, among others. The NCRB data revealed that the number of murder cases has declined by 5.9 per cent with 28,653 cases of killings registered in the year, down from 30,450 in 2016. As per the data, "disputes" (7,898 cases) were the motive in the maximum number of murder cases, followed by "personal vendetta or enmity" (4,660) and "gain" (2,103).
After the incident of the Dadri lynching case that took place in 2015, the government had reportedly decided to include the same in NCRB data. According to a report in The Indian Express, however, the department had collected data on mob lynchings, the same was not published in the 2017 report, and may have partially caused the delay in the release of the report.
In the year 2017, there were around seven incidents of mob lynchings reported by the media in India, including the lynching of Pehlu Khan, which was caught on camera as well. In one incident, in May 2017, seven men were killed in Jharkhand following rumours on WhatsApp of the presence of child kidnapping gangs in the area.
In 2018, the Supreme Court had condemned the incidents of lynching that were reported from across the country and had urged the central government to bring in a separate act declaring lynching as an offence with punishment. In July 2018, Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir had told the Parliament that there was no data on mob lynchings in India since the NCRB does not collect the same.