Smitha Rao - Times News Network

Bangalore, Jul 29: Bangalore has beaten New Delhi and Mumbai, infamously. In its latest findings, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) rates Bangalore as the fifth city recording the highest crime rate, accounting for 9.2 per cent of crimes in the country.

New Delhi, billed the "big, bad city" with its notorious crime rate (15.7 per cent in 2004), now stands in the 10th slot. Mumbai stands 26th in the rankings of crime records of major Indian cities.

The report titled, 'Crime in India, 2005', is slated to be released in the first week of August, say NCRB officials.

The surprise contender for the top slot is Indore in Madhya Pradesh and a bigger eyebrow-raiser is distant Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh in the second slot.

NCRB officials explain that crime rate is calculated based on the number of incidents per lakh population; the rank of a city depends on these incidents.

This means, the ranking could be taken with a pinch of salt. Simply because, in a chock-a-block populated city like Mumbai vis-a-vis the quieter demographics of Vijayawada, differences in crime incidents are bound to appear.

With terrorist cases escalating north of the Vindhyas, how can cities traditionally hailed as safe — like Pensioner's Paradise Bangalore, or a place popular for film theatres, Vijayawada — come in the radar of crime cities?

"There are very few cases of terror actually being reported. Crime statistics that we have collated take into account incidents like murder, chain-snatching, property offences, robberies. Terror is classified under the section 'Others'," explain NCRB officials.

Is there an explanation for Bangalore, with its burgeoning economy and hordes of noveau riche, to also gain notoriety for crime rates?

The line of defence that police officials toe is that in south India, especially Bangalore, people are more liberal in recording and reporting crime cases at police stations.

In fact, former police commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh had gone on record stating: "In Karnataka, police register cases generously, even petty crimes like chain and mobile-phone snatching are registered as FIRs.

This data is sent to the State Crime Records Bureau and subsequently to the NCRB who collate the data from each city. The data from Bangalore will just look inflated." Whatever, it's fifth in the crime rate. Pensioner's Paradise anybody?