Jaipur, Oct. 6 -- In 2023, Rajasthan topped the country with maximum police personnel being arrested due to their involvement in various criminal activities, showed the latest National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report. According to the data, at least 461 police personnel were booked in Rajasthan in 2023. Rajasthan was followed by 313 in Maharashtra, 155 in Kerala, 131 in Andhra Pradesh, and 126 in Arunachal Pradesh. Of the total in 2023, at least 361 were also arrested while a charge sheet was filed against 212 of them, and a final report was submitted in 162 cases. At least 56 of these police personnel were acquitted after the trial while 12 were convicted- again the highest in the country. This 2023 figure was also a three times jump from 2019 when Rajasthan witnessed only 161 police personnel being arrested after 1,681 in Andhra Pradesh, 403 in Maharashtra, 397 in Assam, 210 in Madhya Pradesh, 179 in Gujarat, and another 161 were recorded in Uttar Pradesh. Of these total 161 accused cops in 2019, only 18 were arrested while police filed a charge sheet against 27, and a final report against 89 of them. Nobody had been convicted so far. Rajasthan also booked a total of 223 police personnel in 2020, 245 in 2021, and 227 in 2022, according to the NCRB report. A further classification of the NCRB report also found that seven of the total 461 accused police personnel in 2023 were also convicted for assisting the prisoners escaping from custody. Notably, Rajasthan also topped the country in 2023 with the maximum 90 incidents of prisoners escaping the police custody - of which three were from inside the lock-up while rest were from outside the lock-up. At least 53 of them were re-arrested and 23 are yet absconding. Police charge sheets named 11 police personnel in these cases, of whom seven were also convicted. According to the NCRB, at least six police personnel were convicted in 2022 in connection to such escapes, 14 in 2021, two each in 2020 and 2019. However, the NCRB report did not specify the other reasons for the police personnel being arrested. Commenting on the data from the NCRB on the state's police personnel booked for criminal activities, the director general of police (DGP) of Rajasthan, Rajeev Kumar Sharma, said, "These cops are mostly involved in any corruption. Our anti-corruption unit has been focusing more on gathering internal inputs and conducting sudden raids or traps which have brought many police personnel- particularly at the lower ranks on our radar. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has probably also recorded the highest number of corruption cases in the country in the last few years. This figure is probably a partial reflection of ACB's achievements."...