New Delhi: A list with details of over five lakh sex offenders who have been convicted for crimes against women has now been added to a database which law enforcement agencies can access to help crack sex crimes across the country.
The national registry of sex offenders, which is maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau, has a database of offenders convicted under charges of rape, gangrape, Pocso and eve-teasing. Home ministry officials said that so far details of more than five lakh sex offenders has been added to the database.
India is among few countries like the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago that maintain a sex offenders' list. The US is the only country where the sex offender registry is available to the public.
All relevant details like the photos and IDs available in the registry will only be accessible by law enforcement agencies and will help them track and investigate sexual offence cases. The database includes details like name, address, photo and fingerprint details for each entry but there will be no compromise on privacy.
All these records have been sourced from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, which is a unit of the home ministry..
As per the NCRB, as many as 38,947 rape cases were registered in 2016, against 34,651 in 2015. Overall crimes against women rose from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016. A majority of cases in 2016 in crimes against women were reported under cruelty by husband or his relatives (32.6 per cent), followed by assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty (25 per cent), kidnapping of women (19 per cent), and rape (11.5 per cent).
