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| - Fact Check: Twisted data about rapes become hot issue before Bengal election
Amid the bitter turf war between BJP and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal in the run-up to assembly elections, a graphic circulating on social media claims that as per the 2018 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the state reported the highest number of rape incidents in India.
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India Today Fact Check
As per 2018 NCRB data, Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of rapes in the country. Bengal stood at 11th position. It, however, had the highest number of “attempt to commit rape” cases.
Amid the bitter turf war between BJP and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal in the run-up to assembly elections, a graphic circulating on social media claims that as per the 2018 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the state reported the highest number of rape incidents in India.
Several Facebook users that has the picture of Bengal chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee and the BJP’s lotus symbol.
The accompanying text in Bengali translates to, “There is no respect for mothers and sisters in Bengal. As per 2018 NCRB data, West Bengal reported the highest number of rapes in the country. Mamata has failed in women’s safety.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that as per 2018 NCRB data, Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of rapes in the country, followed by Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Bengal at 11th position, however, had the highest number of “attempt to commit rape” cases in the country.
The archived versions of the posts saved here, here and here.
Origin of the viral image
We found that the viral image was tweeted by the verified handle of “BJP Bengal” on December 14, 2020. India Today contacted the BJP IT cell in Bengal regarding the information quoting NCRB. The IT cell promised to revert with specific data, but till the time of writing this article, they did not respond.
In the meantime, we found that “BJP Bengal” deleted the post both from their Twitter and Facebook handles. The archived versions of the posts can be seen here and here.
What NCRB data says
We looked through the 2018 NCRB data on rape uploaded on their website and found that among all the states and Union territories, Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of 5,433 rape cases. Then came Rajasthan (4,335) and Uttar Pradesh (3,946). West Bengal is in the 11th position with 1,069 cases.
However, as per the same data Bengal reported the highest number of “attempt to commit rape” cases. The state reported 944 such cases, followed by UP (661) and Rajasthan (620).
In its “limitations” section, the NCRB report further says that “Clarifications on data for Crime in India are pending from West Bengal”, along with some other states. So, data from these states may be treated as provisional.
Hence, it can be concluded that the viral post claiming that Bengal reported the highest number of rapes in the country as per 2018 NCRB data is misleading.
(With inputs from Srijit Das)
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