Crimes against women up in Odisha

There is spurt in crimes against women with the Odisha Police registering as many as 1,832 rape cases in 2013 against 1,458 such cases during 2012, according to a white paper of the state Home Department.

The white paper which was laid in the Assembly today, said only five persons have been convicted while 27 others acquitted of rape charges with the tribal dominated district of Mayurbhanj topping the list with 142 cases of sexual assault, followed by another tribal district Keonjhar with 112 cases and Balasore with 90 cases of rape.

Of the 1,832 rape cases, 81 were reported in the Bhubaneswar-Cuttak Commissionerate of Police, the paper said.
 

During 2013 the police had filed charge sheet in 1,161 cases of atrocities against women, of which 63 per cent were related to rape.

The Home department headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in the white paper that the number of rape cases had gone up as each complaint was now being registered in the police station.

On the overall crime situation, the paper said there have been 90,184 cognizable cases as against 83,960 and 73,630 cases in 2012 and 2011 respectively.

The cases were registered under dacoity, robbery, burglary, theft, swindling, rape and motor vehicle accident categories and case detection rate at 85.4 per cent.

Significantly, there has been a marginal drop of six per cent in the number of murder cases. While 1,548 murder cases were reported in 2012, 1,454 cases were reported in 2013 with 91 cases being reported from the Mayurbhanj district followed by 64 cases from the Puri district.