Every day, 144 criminal cases are registered in Punjab. Every eight hours, a case of cruelty by in-laws is registered; every 10 hours, a murder is committed; every 17 hours, a women is raped; and every two hours, a theft is reported in the state.

These facts are mentioned in a book, Crime In Punjab 2009, released by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal here on Tuesday. The book also says 2.61 lakh complaints were received last year, an increase of 4.3 per cent over 2008. At 27,352, the highest number of complaints were from Kapurthala, followed by Ludhiana (24,973).

A total of 2,631 incidents of crime against women were reported in the state last year. Of the 515 cases of rape reported, 107 victims were under the age of 15 years, 185 were teenagers, 179 were between 19 and 30 years, 43 were between 30 and 50 years and one was above 50 years. The offenders were known to victims in as many as 433 (84.7 per cent) cases