Odisha registers 1,03,602 cognisable crimes in 2016

Odisha saw marginal increase in registration of crimes with 1,03,602 cognisable cases registered during 2016 against 1,03,200 cases the previous year.
2016, however, experienced a decrease in major crimes like murder and rape cases, according to the White Paper, 2016, circulated in the assembly today.
While a total of 1,328 murder cases had been registered in 2016, it was 1473 in 2015. Similarly, the number of rape cases also dropped to 2144 in 2016 from 2286 in 2015, the report said.
There were 566 cases of dacoity and 2012 of loot, 4004 of burglary, 9,044 of theft, 3197 of swindling, 10532 of motor vehicle accidents and 68,861 miscellaneous cases reported during 2016, it said.

Claiming that there was a progressive improvement in the overall left wing extremism situation in the state in 2016, the report said there has been no underground LWE activity in the districts of Gajapati, Jajpur, Dhenkanal and Sonepur.
The report said exchange of fire between rebels and the police had taken place 33 times in the year in which 23 civilians and three security personnels had died.

The state was by and large free from communal discord as close attention as paid to the maintenance of communal peace and amity, the report said adding that only 18 Hindu-Muslim and three Hindu-Christian discords were noticed in 2016.

However, communal tension did not escalate due to timely intervention, the report said.
On the political front, all political parties were busy in organising workers' conference, public meeting, mass contacts and awareness programmes to garner public support ahead of the three-tier panchayat elections.
In 2016, police arrested a group of five hardcore SIMI operatives - Sk Mehboob, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussen, Md Salique and Nazma Bibi (mother of Sk. Mehboob) all of Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh from Rourkela.
The Special Task Force of Crime Branch investigated the case and submitted the chargesheet.
It is learnt that four of the SIMI terrorists - Sk Mehboob, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussen and Md Salique fled from a Bhopal prison, where they were lodged when they were taken to Madhya Pradesh to face trial and were killed in a police encounter on October 30, 2016, the report added.