Delhi tops the NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 report as the most crime-prone metro, leading in murders, abductions, crimes against women, children, seniors and foreigners. Despite a fall in total cases from 2023, its crime rate remains the highest, with low charge-sheeting, rampant thefts, high road fatalities, rising juvenile crime and severely overcrowded prisons.
According to the Crime in India 2024 report, released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on 6 May 2026, Delhi has the highest crime rate of any metropolitan city. It accounted for the highest number of crimes against women, children, senior citizens and foreigners, while also recording the most murders, abductions and road accidents.
The national capital recorded 2,75,402 cognisable offences in 2024, the highest among 19 metropolitan cities. Although the figure marked a decline from 3,23,549 cases in 2023 and 2,98,988 in 2022, Delhi’s crime rate remained the highest among metros at 1,688 cases per lakh population.
The NCRB report showed that Delhi registered nearly five times more cases than Mumbai and over seven times more than Bengaluru. At the same time, the city reported the lowest charge-sheeting rate among metropolitan cities at 31.9%.
Crimes against women remained one of the biggest concerns in the capital. Delhi registered 13,396 such cases in 2024, with the crime rate against women standing at 186.5 per lakh population, significantly higher than Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai. Among these offences, Delhi recorded 1,058 rape cases and 3,974 cases of abduction. NCRB data cited rape and dowry-related offences as the key contributors to crimes against women.
The report also showed that Delhi recorded 7,662 cases of crimes against children in 2024, marginally lower than 7,769 in 2023. The city continued to report one of the highest crime rates against children in the country at 138.4 cases per lakh child population, far above the national average of 42.3. The chargesheet rate in crimes against children cases stood at 31.7%, compared to the national average of 61.4%. Delhi also topped the list of metropolitan cities in crimes committed by juveniles. The capital reported 2,306 such cases in 2024, slightly higher than 2,278 in 2023.
Kidnapping and abduction cases remained high in the capital as well. Delhi recorded 5,580 such cases in 2024, accounting for nearly 35% of all kidnapping and abduction cases reported across metropolitan cities. A total of 23,058 people were reported missing in Delhi in 2024, including 13,576 women and 5,491 children. By the end of the year, 27,547 people remained untraced.
The NCRB data also showed that Delhi registered 1,267 crimes against senior citizens in 2024, the highest among Union Territories and metro cities, though lower than 1,361 cases in 2023. The city recorded a crime rate of 110 cases per lakh population in this category.
Property-related offences remained another major concern. Delhi reported 1,80,973 theft cases in 2024, nearly 30% of all theft cases recorded across the country. Property worth ₹671.4 crore was reported stolen in the city during the year, while recoveries stood at ₹105 crore, resulting in a recovery rate of 15.6%.
Road safety data in the NCRB report painted a similarly worrying picture. Delhi recorded 1,658 deaths due to road accidents in 2024. Of the 2,000 road accident negligence cases registered, 1,521 were classified as hit-and-run incidents.
NCRB further reported 2,905 suicides in Delhi in 2024, the highest among 53 Indian cities, although the figure marked a decline from 3,131 suicides in 2023. Family disputes, marital problems, illnesses and unemployment were listed among the major causes.
In cybercrime, Delhi recorded 404 cases in 2024, slightly lower than 407 cases in 2023. The data showed that offences involving obscene electronic content and sexually explicit material involving children formed a major share of these cases.
Delhi additionally recorded the highest crime rate under the Government Railway Police among states and Union Territories, with 5,315 GRP cases registered in 2024.
Prison overcrowding also remained severe in the capital. NCRB’s Prison Statistics of India 2024 showed Delhi jails operating at 194.6% occupancy, the highest in the country. The city’s prisons housed 19,512 inmates against a sanctioned capacity of 10,026. Of these, 17,178 were undertrials. The report also highlighted staffing shortages – against a sanctioned strength of 6,512 prison staff, only 2,447 personnel were in place, leaving 4,069 posts vacant.
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