Illustration for The Hindu
| Photo Credit: Satheesh Vellinezhi
Telangana recorded the highest number of cybercrime cases in the country in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
The State registered 27,230 cybercrime cases in 2024, far ahead of every other State and Union Territory in the country. Karnataka stood second with 21,993 cases followed by Uttar Pradesh with 11,073 cases and Maharashtra with 9,922 cases.
The numbers show a steep jump of around 49% in 2024 as compared to 18,236 cases in 2023. Over the two-year period from 2022 to 2024, cybercrime cases in Telangana rose by nearly 78%.
Telangana alone accounted for more than one-fourth of all cybercrime cases registered in India in 2024. Nationally, cybercrime cases increased from 86,420 in 2023 to 1,01,928 in 2024, registering a rise of around 18.1%.
The cybercrime rate in Telangana stood at 71.1 cases per lakh population in 2024, the highest in the country and almost ten times the national average of 7.3. While cyber crimes surged, Telangana’s chargesheeting rate remained low at 16.2%, almost half the national average of 31.9%, indicating slower conversion of complaints into prosecuted cases.
Fraud continued to remain the biggest driver of cybercrime in the State in 2024, with 21,987 cases linked to frauds, 414 cases were related to cyber extortion and 157 were linked to sexual exploitation, the data revealed.
Hyderabad emerges as major city hotspot
Meanwhile, Hyderabad continued to rank among the country’s most cybercrime-affected metropolitan cities.
Hyderabad recorded 4,009 cybercrime cases in 2024, placing it only behind Bengaluru and Mumbai among major metropolitan cities. Bengaluru topped the list with 17,561 cases, while Mumbai recorded 4,939 cases. Across metropolitan cities, cybercrime cases rose from 33,955 in 2023 to 34,958 in 2024.
Despite remaining among the worst-affected cities, Hyderabad saw a decline in cybercrime cases in 2024 compared to the previous two years. The city had reported 4,436 cases in 2022 and 4,855 cases in 2023. The 2024 figure represents a decline of around 17% from 2023 levels.
However, Hyderabad’s cybercrime rate remained among the highest in the country at 51.7 cases per lakh population, while the chargesheeting rate stood at 12.9% in 2024, lower than the metropolitan cities average of 27.1%.
Published – May 07, 2026 08:35 pm IST
