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With the Bharatiya Janata Party raising illegal migration and infiltration as key issues ahead of the Assembly election in Bihar, the latest data by the National Crime Records Bureau shows that only five cases pertaining to the Foreigners and Passport Acts were registered in the State in 2023. The number of such cases in 2022 and 2021 stood at three and one respectively.
In 2023, a total of 2,290 cases were registered under The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939; The Foreigners Act, 1946; The Passport Act, 1967; The Emigration Act, 1983; and The Citizenship Act, 1955, according to the “Crime in India Report 2023” released by the NCRB on Monday.
The maximum of 1,050 such cases were registered in West Bengal, followed by 277 cases in Tripura, 272 in Maharashtra, 167 in Tamil Nadu and 78 in Punjab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have both invoked the issue of infiltration in Bihar in their recent speeches to justify the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls carried out by the Election Commission of India in the State.
The “Prison Statistics of India 2023” report, also released on Monday, said that the number of foreigners in the country’s prisons had risen from 6,283 in 2022 to 6,956 in 2023, an increase of 10.7%. Among them, 21.5% (1,499 inmates) were convicts, 74.3% (5,167 inmates) were undertrials and 0.4% (25 inmates) were detenues.
Bangladeshi nationals comprised the most number of foreign convicts in Indian jails (59.4%), followed by 13.3% from Nepal, 10.46% from Myanmar, 6.5% from Pakistan, and 3.9% from Nigeria.
Offences against State
The total number of cases pertaining to “offences against the State” declined by 13.1% in 2023 compared to 2022. A total of 4,873 such cases were registered in 2023, compared to 5,610 cases in 2022. Of these, 81.9% of cases (3,989) were registered under The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and 15.4% cases (750) under The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). In 2022, the number of cases registered under the UAPA stood at 1,005.
Most of the cases under the UAPA were filed in Uttar Pradesh (224), followed by Jammu and Kashmir (178), Manipur (113), Assam (73) and Jharkhand (36).
Environment-related offences saw an increase of 30.4% in 2023 compared to the previous year with 68,994 cases registered in 2023 and 52,920 cases in 2022. With regard to types of crimes, data revealed that offences under The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) accounted for 85.9% of cases (59,279), followed by Noise Pollution Acts (State/Central) with 9.6% of cases (6,640).
Published – September 30, 2025 11:06 pm IST
