Incidents of rape and kidnapping for ransom declined in the capital in 2007 while cases of cyber crimes shot up by 200 per cent, Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal said on Wednesday.

The capital recorded a decline in registration of IPC cases with 53,244 last year as against 55,125 in 2006, which was a decrease of 1,881 cases, he said while releasing the crime data for 2007. However, he claimed that the detection rate of crime has increased from 87.9 per cent to 89.4 per cent.

The capital witnessed a decline of rape cases from 609 in 2006 to 581 last year, Dadwal said, noting that the ratio has increased by 1.26 per cent to 95.18 per cent. Majority of the rape accused -- 98.28 per cent -- were known to the victims, he said.

Of the people arrested in rape cases, 340 were neighbours, 94 were friends and 62 were relatives. Only in ten cases, the accused were strangers. No rape cases were reported from 19 police stations out of the total 132, while 25 police stations accounted for 288 such incidents, amounting to about 50 per cent.

The police also solved all the 24 cases of kidnapping for ransom last year. There were 32 cases in 2006 and the solving rate was 75 per cent. However, Dadwal said there was a marginal increase -- 0.36 per cent -- in heinous offences with 2,217 such cases in 2007 as against 2209 in 2006.

Cyber crime cases have gone up by 200 per cent last year compared to 2006. Among these, the increase in cases related to credit card fraud has registered a 500 per cent increase, he said.

Twenty-five cases of infringement of intellectual property rights were registered in 2007,  in which 45 people were arrested. The police also seized various products worth about Rs 2.67 crore.

They claimed that the rate of murder in the capital has declined from 4.16 murders per one lakh population in 2000 to 2.79 in 2007. In 2007, there were 467 murders compared to 462 in 2006.

Unlike in 2006, when there was an increase in riot cases, 2007 witnessed a dip in such incidents -- 83 cases were reported last year, five cases less than the previous year.

Nineteen militants aiming to strike terror in the capital were arrested and four killed during 2007, Dadwal said, adding that 9.6 kg RDX was recovered during various operations. The militants included members from Lashker-e-Taiba, Jaish-e- Mohammed and HuJI. Under local and special laws, 20,867 cases were registered in 2007 which was a substantial decline from 29,359 cases in 2006.