• Steady increase in kidnappings in Assam from 6,126 in 2016 to 8,966 in 2018
• Assam has the second highest rate of kidnappings in India after Delhi
• On an average 25 kidnappings and abductions take place in Assam daily
• In 2018, three abductions were reported in the state in as many days
• Most common reasons for abduction and kidnapping in Assam are marriage and ransom
• 14,000 people remain unrecovered in Assam
• Assam records second lowest rate of recovery in the country
According to data published by the National Crime Records Bureau, on an average as many as 25 people go missing in the state of Assam every day. Out of these, only 25 per cent of the victims are reunited with their families. The rest remain untraced.
A total of 8,966 cases of kidnapping and abduction were recorded in Assam in the year 2018, which was 8.5% of such cases across the country.
The maximum number of 21,711 cases was reported from Uttar Pradesh, followed by 11,433 in Maharashtra. Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland with 3, 74 and 90 cases respectively were at the bottom of the table on such crime.
Assam Police records for the past decade also show how kidnappings have risen steadily over the years. Compared to the previous year’s data, Assam witnessed an increase of 1,109 incidents of kidnapping and abduction from 2017 when the number of such cases stood at 7,857 while it was 6,126 in 2016.
Assam recorded the second highest rate of kidnapping and abduction in India in the year 2018. In Assam, the rate of such crime stood at 26.3 whereas Delhi recorded a crime rate of 31.
The data points towards Assam becoming a hub of kidnappers both as a transit and destination point.
In a spurt of kidnapping cases in Assam in the year 2018, three abductions were reported in the state in as many days.
First, the manager of a stone quarry named Apurba Kakoti was kidnapped from Jagun area of Tinsukia district. Then, a businessman, Babul Deb, was kidnapped at gunpoint from Phuloni Bazaar area of Karbi Anglong district. Later that day, the manager of a tea garden in Sapakheti of Charaideo district, Nomol Chandra Baruah, was reportedly kidnapped from his official residence.
In another sensational incident, a five-year old from Guwahati was kidnapped from his school in Sreenagar area of the city. As per reports, though the school normally gets over at 12:30 pm, an unknown youth, who identified himself as a relative of the child, came to the school around 11.30 am and asked the school authority to release the child saying that his mother wanted him to take the child, Manbik, due to some emergency.
The unknown youth also connected a woman who claimed to be the mother of Manbik, with the school authority over telephone and that woman asked the school authority to immediately hand over Manbik to the youth on emergency grounds. The incident raised a lot of questions on the safety of children at school.
Under section 363 to 369 IPC, most registered cases in Assam are of elopement for marriage, according to sources in the Assam police. People are also kidnapped for the purpose of illicit intercourse, performing unlawful activities and ransom.
Over 14,000 people remain unrecovered in Assam
The latest annual report of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) revealed that a total of 14,084 victims – 12,294 males and 1,790 females – who were abducted in the previous years have not been traced as on 31st December, 2018.
Assam recorded the second highest number of unrecovered kidnapped and abducted persons, following Uttar Pradesh which had 26,921 unrecovered persons.
The percentage rate of recovery in Assam remained at 24.7% which was second lowest in the country only topping Uttarakhand which had a recovery rate of 17.3%.
A police official explained that the gap has been caused due to “lack of coordination” with the police of the other northeastern states.
“Most of the kidnapping and abduction cases reported are that of adults. These are mostly cases of elopement rather than abduction. In most of the cases the victims had been taken to the neighboring states. It is difficult for us to rescue the victims from those states since it depends on coordination with their police,” he said.
However, several NGOs engaged with the rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked victims argued that the rise in kidnapping and abduction cases is an indication of the increasing trend in human trafficking in the state.
The NCRB report recorded a dip in the trafficking cases from 1,317 in 2015 to only 238 in 2018.