The chief minister said 83 rape cases were registered in Kandhamal during the same period.
The chief minister said 83 rape cases were registered in Kandhamal during the same period.

Rape and murder in Odisha take a plunge in 2016

Communal tensions did not escalate due to timely intervention, the report said.

BHUBANESHWAR: Odisha, which saw a marginal increase in registration of cognisable offences during 2016 compared to the previous year, numbered low in major crimes, including murder and rape. According to the white paper on crime-2016 circulated in the State assembly on Tuesday, 1,03,602 cognisable cases were registered in 2016 compared to 1,03,200 in 2015.

While 1,328 murder cases were registered in 2016, it was 1,473 in 2015. Similarly, rape cases decreased to 2,144 from 2,286 in 2015. There were 566 cases of dacoity and 2,012 of loot, 4,004 of burglary, 9,044 of theft, 3,197 of swindling, 10,532 of motor vehicle accidents and 68,861 miscellaneous cases reported during 2016, the white paper said.
 
Stating that there was a progressive improvement in the overall left wing extremism (LWE) situation in the State in 2016, the white paper said there have been no underground LWE activities in Gajapati, Jajpur, Dhenkanal and Sonepur districts.

The report claimed that LWE activities were significantly controlled in Sambalpur, Deogarh, Nabarangpur, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Ganjam and Rourkela, and the situation remained challenging in parts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Bolangir, Bargarh, Boudh, Angul and Nayagarh districts.

The recruitment of cadres in the CPI (Maoist) organisation and the mass support base of the outfit has declined, it said. The report also said exchange of fire between rebels and the police had taken place 33 times last year, in which 23 civilians and three security personnel had died. In the anti-LWE front, as many as 39 LWE cadres were neutralised, 35 arrested and 31 surrendered in the State during 2016.

The white paper claimed a large number of villagers, including militia, supporters and sympathisers from Kalimela, Podia and Mathili areas of Malkangiri district had distanced themselves from the Maoists, which signals a progressive turn in the situation.
However, the State was by and large free from communal discord as close attention was 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.

Communal tensions did not escalate due to timely intervention, the report said. On the political front, all political parties were busy organising workers' conferences, public meetings, 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 the Crime Branch investigated the case and submitted the chargesheet.

The white paper said, 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 taken to Madhya Pradesh to face trial, and were killed in a police encounter in Bhopal on October 30, 2016 in a jail break.

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