Assam is the most vulnerable state in the region in terms of crime against women, said the National Crime Records Bureau report 2017, which was published recently.

According to the report, Assam tops the chart among the northeastern states with a crime rate of 143.6 per cent, calculated per 1 lakh population, against the all-India rate of 57.9 per cent. The report shows a total of 23,082 cases of crimes against women in Assam under the IPC and the Special & Local Laws in 2017. The number was 20,869 in 2016.

Arunachal Pradesh is second with a total of 17,909 cases. The least number of cases (79) were registered in Nagaland.

Assam registered 6.4 per cent of the all-India cases of crime against women, Tripura 0.3 per cent and Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram 0.1 per cent each. The rest of the Northeast is in a good position with negligible contribution to the national total.

The cases registered during the year include murder with rape or gang rape, dowry deaths, cruelty by husband or relatives, abduction and procurement of minor girls, among others.

Twenty-seven women were murdered after rape in Assam in 2017 and two in Tripura. In terms of dowry deaths, the figure in Assam is 193, while it is 16 in Tripura. Altogether 10,598 cases of cruelty by husband or his relatives were registered in Assam against 351 in Tripura.

In terms of abduction, Assam tops the region with 5,703 cases against 95 in Tripura. Procurement of minor girls for sexual abuses and other similar purposes is becoming a threat to Assam with 1,286 registered cases, while the number of reported cases is 23, the second highest, in Meghalaya.

Centre slammed: Former Tripura PCC chief Gopal Chandra Roy on Wednesday said crimes against women had increased across the country since the BJP government assumed office in 2014.

Roy said a housewife was burnt to death in Sepahijala on Sunday, while the body of a specially-abled girl was recovered in Unakoti district on International Day of Disabled Persons on Tuesday but the government failed to take action in any of these incidents.

He also slammed the Centre over the recent hike in onion prices.

Additional reporting by Tanmoy Chakraborty in Agartala