While CM Mamata Banerjee downplays crimes against women as ‘minor’ issue, NCRB report exposes grim reality: Over a decade of betrayal for Bengal’s women

Ruled by a woman Chief minister, West Bengal should have been an ideal for other states in respect to women safety and rights; however, the Trinamool Congress-ruled state has become disturbingly unsafe for women. The frequent cases of sexual assault and the recently published National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report reflect the state government’s nonchalant handling of women’s safety. In a horrifying incident in West Bengal’s Durgapur, a second-year MBBS student from Odisha was allegedly gang-raped by Apu Bauri, Firdos Sekh, and Sekh Reajuddin and two others in a jungle area near the city on Friday (10th October) night. The rape survivor’s father fears that his daughter is not safe in West Bengal. “Trust has been lost. We don’t want her to stay in Bengal. She will pursue her education in Odisha,” he said. #WATCH | Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal | Father of the Durgapur alleged gangrape victim, says, "… She is unable to walk and is on bedrest. The Chief Minister, DG, SP, and Collector are all helping us a lot and regularly enquiring about her health… I have requested the Chief… pic.twitter.com/W4u54SMnwl— ANI (@ANI) October 12, 2025 This loss of trust is not shocking. The incident comes just months after the brutal rape and murder of a female doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital, raising fresh fears for the safety of medical professionals and female students in the state. What further exacerbates the situation is how Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, forget ensuring swift action, resorts to victim blaming and downplaying crimes against women in the state. Victim blaming to dodge accountability? West Bengal’s woman chief minister insensitive to the ordeal women CM Banerjee expressed shock over the assault and even promised “strict action” against the perpetrators, however, she ended up blaming the victim for the brutality she was subjected to. “How the victim was allowed to leave the campus at 12.30 a.m. The private institution should not allow it…The girls should not be allowed to go outside (college) at night. They have to protect themselves also.” The West Bengal Chief Minister, however, has an opprobrious record of making remarks that appear to downplay sexual assault cases. Over the years, both Banerjee and senior members of her Trinamool Congress have faced criticism for their insensitive responses to rape incidents. One of the most infamous cases was the 2012 Park Street gangrape case. An Anglo-Indian woman, Suzette Jordan, was raped in a moving car by five men on February 6, 2012, when she was returning home from Park Street in Kolkata. Soon after the news surfaced, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee absolved the accused of all charges. She had dubbed the incident as ‘shajano ghotona‘ (concocted incident), which was allegedly ‘designed to malign the government.’ Her party leaders, including TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, publicly questioned the victim’s character, calling the incident a “misunderstanding between a lady and her client.” Years later, in 2015, a Kolkata court convicted three of the accused, proving the assault had indeed taken place. In 2013, during a debate in the West Bengal legislative assembly about the rising cases of rapes in the State, the CM had insinuated that it was due to an increase in the population of the State. She had also blamed modernisation, an increase in shopping malls and multiplexes for rising rape cases. Even during the 2024 Sandeshkhali unrest, Mamata Banerjee attempted to downplay the harassment and sexual exploitation of women at the hands of Trinamool Congress goons by calling it as “minor incident”. “After that, some media houses capitalised on the incident. Made a hue and cry out of a minor incident,” Mamata Banerjee said. West Bengal CM dubs crimes against women as ‘minor incident’, NCRB data reveals the grim reality The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently released its “Crime in India” report for the year 2023. The report revealed that West Bengal recorded 34,691 cases of crimes against women under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). While this marks a marginal decline from 34,738 cases in 2022, the number is one of the highest in the country. The statistics translates to a crime rate of 71.3 cases per lakh female population. The estimated female population in the state is 48.64 million. Despite an overall dip, the TMC-ruled state leads the nation in specific categories of violence. The state recorded highest number of crimes committed by foreigners in 2023, with the greatest number of cases registered under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939. In the year 2023, West Bengal registered 1,021 criminal cases perpetrated by foreigners, with 989 cases filed under these two acts while 7 cases were registered under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and two under The Arms Act, 1959. Some other cases involving foreig

Oct 13, 2025 2

While CM Mamata Banerjee downplays crimes against women as ‘minor’ issue, NCRB report exposes grim reality: Over a decade of betrayal for Bengal’s women

Ruled by a woman Chief minister, West Bengal should have been an ideal for other states in respect to women safety and rights; however, the Trinamool Congress-ruled state has become disturbingly unsafe for women. The frequent cases of sexual assault and the recently published National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report reflect the state government’s nonchalant handling of women’s safety.

In a horrifying incident in West Bengal’s Durgapur, a second-year MBBS student from Odisha was allegedly gang-raped by Apu Bauri, Firdos Sekh, and Sekh Reajuddin and two others in a jungle area near the city on Friday (10th October) night. The rape survivor’s father fears that his daughter is not safe in West Bengal. “Trust has been lost. We don’t want her to stay in Bengal. She will pursue her education in Odisha,” he said.

This loss of trust is not shocking. The incident comes just months after the brutal rape and murder of a female doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital, raising fresh fears for the safety of medical professionals and female students in the state. What further exacerbates the situation is how Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, forget ensuring swift action, resorts to victim blaming and downplaying crimes against women in the state.

Victim blaming to dodge accountability? West Bengal’s woman chief minister insensitive to the ordeal women

CM Banerjee expressed shock over the assault and even promised “strict action” against the perpetrators, however, she ended up blaming the victim for the brutality she was subjected to. “How the victim was allowed to leave the campus at 12.30 a.m. The private institution should not allow it…The girls should not be allowed to go outside (college) at night. They have to protect themselves also.”

The West Bengal Chief Minister, however, has an opprobrious record of making remarks that appear to downplay sexual assault cases. Over the years, both Banerjee and senior members of her Trinamool Congress have faced criticism for their insensitive responses to rape incidents.

One of the most infamous cases was the 2012 Park Street gangrape case. An Anglo-Indian woman, Suzette Jordan, was raped in a moving car by five men on February 6, 2012, when she was returning home from Park Street in Kolkata. Soon after the news surfaced, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee absolved the accused of all charges. She had dubbed the incident as ‘shajano ghotona‘ (concocted incident), which was allegedly ‘designed to malign the government.’

Her party leaders, including TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, publicly questioned the victim’s character, calling the incident a “misunderstanding between a lady and her client.” Years later, in 2015, a Kolkata court convicted three of the accused, proving the assault had indeed taken place.

In 2013, during a debate in the West Bengal legislative assembly about the rising cases of rapes in the State, the CM had insinuated that it was due to an increase in the population of the State. She had also blamed modernisation, an increase in shopping malls and multiplexes for rising rape cases.

Even during the 2024 Sandeshkhali unrest, Mamata Banerjee attempted to downplay the harassment and sexual exploitation of women at the hands of Trinamool Congress goons by calling it as “minor incident”. “After that, some media houses capitalised on the incident. Made a hue and cry out of a minor incident,” Mamata Banerjee said.

West Bengal CM dubs crimes against women as ‘minor incident’, NCRB data reveals the grim reality

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently released its “Crime in India” report for the year 2023. The report revealed that West Bengal recorded 34,691 cases of crimes against women under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). While this marks a marginal decline from 34,738 cases in 2022, the number is one of the highest in the country.

The statistics translates to a crime rate of 71.3 cases per lakh female population. The estimated female population in the state is 48.64 million.

Despite an overall dip, the TMC-ruled state leads the nation in specific categories of violence. The state recorded highest number of crimes committed by foreigners in 2023, with the greatest number of cases registered under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939. In the year 2023, West Bengal registered 1,021 criminal cases perpetrated by foreigners, with 989 cases filed under these two acts while 7 cases were registered under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and two under The Arms Act, 1959. Some other cases involving foreigners were registered under offences like cheating, causing grievous hurt and human trafficking.

In 2023, India recorded 207 cases of acid attacks with West Bengal alone accounting for 57 acid attack cases under Section 326A of IPC. The NCRB data showed that in 57 cases of acid attacks, there were 60 victims/survivors in West Bengal while in 207 cases nationwide, there were 220 victims.

The NCRB data shows that West Bengal alone accounted for 27.5% of all acid attacks in the country in the year 2023. In 2022, West Bengal recorded 48 acid attacks with 52 victims, out of 202 cases nationwide. In this crime category, the TMC-ruled state is leading the country since 2018. As per the NCRB data, in all cases of acid attacks across the country, 267 arrests were made and of those arrested, 246 were men and 21 women.

West Bengal recorded 7 cases of murder with rape/gangrape, 350 dowry deaths and 419 incidents of abetment to suicide of women in 2023.

Among the crime categories, the most cases were recorded under Section 498 A of the IPC, which deals with cruelty by a husband or his relatives. West Bengal has the second-highest number of Section 498 A of the IPC cases in the nation, with 19698 cases and 20462 victims. The total number of cruelty by husband or his relatives-related cases recorded across the country stood at 128814 with Uttar Pradesh leading with 19889 cases.

Overall, cases of ‘cruelty by husband or relatives’ accounted for the largest share at 29.8% (1.33 lakh cases) involving 1.35 lakh victims. This marks a slight dip as in the year 2022, this category under IPC section 498A made up 31.4% of all such crimes.

Meanwhile, West Bengal recorded 17 cases of kidnapping for ransom under Section 364A, 515 cases of Kidnapping & Abduction of Women to compel her for marriage (Sec. 366 IPC), above 18 years of age, in the year 2023. For minors, this number in West Bengal stood at 390. In this category, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar recorded highest number of incidents.

In the category of kidnapping and abduction of women – others (Sec.363A, 365, 367, 368, 369 IPC), West Bengal recorded the highest, 2054 incidents out of the 7964 cases nationwide. Meanwhile, the total number of kidnapping and abduction of women in West Bengal stood at 6544, one of the highest in the country.

The statewise data of the NCRB report showed that West Bengal recorded 1110 incidents of rape with 1112 victims. Of these, in 917 cases offenders were known to victim, in 27 cases offender were family members, 11 friends/online friends/live-partners, and in 193 cases the offenders were stranger/unknown to the victims.

In the ‘Attempt to Rape’ crime category, West Bengal was only second to Rajasthan (845 cases), to record 825 cases with all victims being women above 18 years of age.

In the ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ category, West Bengal recorded 2479 cases involving 2487 victims in 2023. Meanwhile, the West Bengal figures for ‘Insult to the Modesty of Women’ category stood at 412 cases. The total IPC crimes against women stood at 31928, one of the highest in the country.

The state of West Bengal recorded 2721 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in 2023. There were 1798 cases related to child rape (Sec.4 & 6 of POCSO Act/ Sec 376 IPC), 644 incidents pertaining to sexual assault of children (Sec.8 & 10 of POCSO Act) / Sec.354 IPC) and 244 incidents under sexual harassment (Sec. 12 of POCSO Act) / Sec. 509 IPC).

West Bengal recorded 29 cases under the offence of use of child for pornography/storing child pornography material (section 14 and 14 of POCSO Act).

Regarding the police disposal of crime against women, there were 125 incidents wherein cases ended as final report false and 1165 cases as cases ended as mistake of fact of law or civil dispute. The West Bengal Police disposed off 34344 cases of crime against women in 2023 with pendency rate standing at 23.2%.

The facts and figures detailed in the NCRB report indicate that domestic violence and abduction remain dominant, comprising over 75% of the reported incidents in 2023. The experts, however, opine that the actual numbers could be way higher, not only in the context of West Bengal but also in respect to situation in other states. The data showed low conviction rate, just 3.7% in West Bengal while national rate stood at 21.3%. What further exacerbates the situation high number of pending cases, over 3,68,000, although West Bengal has a good chargesheeting rate.

However, as per the NCRB’s Crime in India 2023 report, West Bengal’s rate of crimes against women stands at 71.3 cases per lakh female population, which is significantly high compared to the national average of 65.3 cases per lakh female population.

Despite the disturbing numbers, the West Bengal government audaciously decided to pat its back and declare Kolkata as the ‘safest city’ for women. However, the National Commission for Women, chairperson, Archana Majumdar called out the Trinamool Congress for “misrepresenting” NCRB data and said that West Bengal has nearly 4 lakh pending cases pertaining to crimes against women, highest in India, with no action or convictions.

“This is half explanation and misinterpretation of the NCRB data… In 2023, the state government submitted their report on crime against women, in which over four lakhs of pending cases, in which no one is convicted or action is not taken, in West Bengal, which is the highest in the country… Police administration is not working on them. The judiciary is also failing because of non-cooperation by the administration and the police. They are not submitting the charge sheet in time. This thing is going on in West Bengal, and they are hiding facts… This is the tip of the iceberg… These are a few cases,” she said.

The wounds of RG Kar case are yet to heal, and a young girl was gangraped in Durgapur, similar cases was reported in Birbhum with reported inaction of the local police, yet TMC indulges in self-praise. Apparently, women safety is a major issue when TMC has to attack the BJP and it becomes ‘minor issue’ when demanded accountability in the state it rules.

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