The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Monday finally released the latest annual crime data, "Crime in India-2017", revealing that there was an increase of 3.6 percent in criminal cases in 2017 compared to the year before when 50 lakh cases of cognisable offences were lodged across the country.

The much-awaited data, which was delayed more than one year, for the crimes registered in 2017 also revealed that the number of murder cases dropped 5.9 percent with 28,653 cases of killings registered in the year, lower from 30,450 in 2016.

"Disputes" (7,898 cases) were the biggest motive in the maximum number of murder cases, followed by "personal vendetta or enmity" (4,660) and "gain" (2,103), as per the NCRB data.

Kidnapping and abduction cases rose 9 percent in 2017, with 95,893 cases registered against 88,008 in 2016, the NCRB data said.

As per the data more females were reported kidnapped or abducted out of a total of 1,00,555 such cases (23,814 male and 76,741 female).

Furthermore, more of the victims reported kidnapped or abducted were female children. In 2017, out of a total 43,933 cases of kidnapping or abduction, 34,415 were female children and the rest 9,518 were male child victims.

The NCRB data showed 9,89,071 cases of offences affecting the human body, including 1,42,794 cases of death by negligence and 86,001 of assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, were registered.

Fraudulent transactions and sexual exploitation were the most reported cybercrimes in India in 2017, according to the NCRB. The report said that cyber frauds led the number of reported cybercrimes by a large margin, accounting for a total of 12,213 individual reports across all states and union territories in India.

The second most individually reported cases of cybercrime came in the form of online sexual exploitation and harassment, which were 1,460, as per India's official cybercrime records for 2017.

In terms of the topographic distribution of cybercrime reports, Uttar Pradesh has been accounted as the state that received the highest number of cybercrimes in 2017, with 4,971 out of the 21,796 accounted cases of cybercrime.

Maharashtra ranked the second highest with 3,604 counts of reported online crime, while Karnataka ranked third with 3,174 cases.

In the northeast, Assam recorded sharply higher number of cybercrimes in comparison to other states, with a total of 1,120 reported cases in 2017.

Sexual exploitation and personal revenge have been noted as the two most focused motives behind cyber-attacks in Assam, throwing interesting insight into how the nature of cybercrime differs among states.

Among the other most affected states, frauds and extortion were the biggest motives behind attacks in UP, while sexual exploits and frauds were the biggest causes of attacks in Maharashtra.

Alongside the uniform aspect of frauds in each state, "causing disrepute" has been noted as the second most reported form of cyber-attacks in Karnataka in 2017.

The NCRB, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws in the country.

-with inputs from agencies