95% rise in communal riots cases in India in 2020
There was a 95 per cent rise in cases of communal riots in the country in 2020, and Bihar, Maharashtra and Haryana were the top three states to witness communal riots between 2018 and 2020, as per data provided by the Union government to Parliament.
There was a 95 per cent rise in communal cases in the country in 2020. This alarming data was provided by the Union government itself as part of an answer to a question raised by an MP in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget Session in February.
The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, as part of his reply, said that a total of 1,807 communal riot cases were registered between 2018 and 2020, in which 8,565 people were arrested.
Giving the break-up, he said 512 communal riot cases were registered across India in 2018 and 438 in 2019, which rose massively to 857 in 2020. This calculates to a rise by exactly 95.66 per cent in 2020, over 2019.
Over this period, that is, 2018 to 2020, he said that the highest number of cases of riots were registered in Bihar, followed by Maharashtra and Haryana, the numbers being 419, 167 and 146, respectively.
As for the break-up in terms of the number of arrests, Rai said 4,097 people were arrested for the riots in 2018, 2,405 in 2019 and 2,063 in 2020.
Of these, 4,169 people were charge-sheeted in 2018, 2,281 in 2019 and 1,908 in 2020, of whom the number of convicted were 200 , 332 and 229, respectively.
In parallel to the proportion of cases in Bihar, Maharashtra and Haryana, the number of people arrested and convicted were also in that order: 2,777 people arrested and 62 convicted in Bihar, 1,332 people arrested and 10 convicted in Maharashtra, and 294 people arrested and three convicted in Haryana.
