Delhi has witnessed a 15 per cent rise in crime in 2021, compared to its previous year, the Delhi police said on Thursday. The surge in crime in 2021, is primarily due to the lower number of crimes recorded in 2020 due to the Covid-19 lockdown, police said.According to data shared by the police, a total of 3.06 lakh crimes were reported in 2021 against 2.66 lakh cases in 2020.Talking about heinous crimes, which include murders, attempts to murder, rape, dacoity, kidnapping for ransom, robbery, and riots, police said a total of 5,377 such crimes were reported in 2021, which is 4.10 per cent higher than the 5,165 heinous crimes reported in 2020.The data also shows that in 2020, a total of 7,965 cases of snatching were reported, which grew to 9,383 cases in 2021 with an increase of 15 per cent. Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said that they have taken certain measures to contain the snatching menace, as a result of which there is also an increase of 13 per cent in arrests in the cases related to snatching.“Roughly about 70 per cent of crimes in 2021 are of petty thefts, burglary, robbery and thefts. Of the total crime, only 1.8 per cent is a heinous crime while 93.8% is non-heinous,” Asthana said.The data further shows that there’s a 9 per cent increase in crimes against senior citizens in 2021. A total of 41,113 such cases were registered in 2021, it said. He said that murder cases in the national capital have decreased by 3 per cent from 472 in 2020 to 459 in 2021. “We arrested 1,050 people in connection with the murder cases, more than 1,015 arrested previous year, he said.According to the data, the number of attempt to murder cases also witnessed a hike of 35 per cent and rose from 485 in 2020 to 655 in 2021. A total of 1,629 arrests were made in connection with an attempt to murder cases which is 45 per cent higher than 1,126 people arrested in 2020, the data shows.Further, the police claimed to have identified as many as 21 major gangs active in outlying districts of Delhi, while they said that in 2021 at least seven dreaded criminals were neutralised.Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.