BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has witnessed a decline in murder cases over the previous year and there was no murder due to communalism or casteism, revealed data released by the police.
As many as 1,267 murder cases were registered in the state in 2017 against 1,328 murder cases that were reported in 2016.
According to the police, while 697 men and 549 women were killed in 2017, the number of males and females murdered in 2016 was 683 and 659 respectively.
Even as the statistics show that there was a decline in murder cases last year as compared to 2016, but the number of males killed during the year has not reduced significantly.
Crime Branch ADG Santosh Upadhyay informed that 306 cases of dowry deaths were registered in 2017 while 115 persons were killed allegedly because of personal vendetta and previous enmity.
Besides this, 71 deaths reported in 2017 were allegedly due to love intrigue and deaths of 50 persons were reported because of property disputes. Similarly, 32 persons were allegedly killed for personal gains.
The police said 84.4 per cent murder cases were detected in 2017 and 1,589 culprits were apprehended. Some of the cases registered under sections of 302 of IPC turned out not to be murder cases during investigations.
Although no death was reported due to communalism or casteism in 2017, five deaths were reported due to the activities of the extremists in the State. The deaths reported due to activities of the extremists' in 2016 was comparatively higher with 11 fatalities.
"Of 1,267 murder cases registered in the state last year, charge sheets of 643 cases have already been submitted in various courts," the senior police officer said and added that the charge sheets of 381 cases will be submitted soon.