Bhubaneswar: Odisha registered a marginal surge in overall crimes as per the White Paper which was tabled by the Home department in the Assembly on Wednesday.
As many as 1, 03,866 cases were registered in 2017 as against 1,03,702 cases in 2016. Out of the total, 87,297 cases were registered under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and charge sheets were filed in 70,045 cases.
Besides, Odisha also witnessed a surge in rape cases in 2017 as 2,221 cases were registered in 2017 against 2,144 cases in 2016. Charge sheets have been filed in 1,401 out of the total cases, the report stated.
However, cases of homicide witnessed a fall with 1,267 murder cases registered during 2016-17 as against 1328 the year before. Charge sheets were filed in 643 cases.
The White Paper also mentioned that 17 cases of communal tension across the State were reported in 2017 and most cases of law and order situation arising out of protests and agitations over various local issues raised by the Opposition political parties and other fronts were peacefully tackled.
Though 2017 did not witnessed any terrorist activities, 52 Naxal related violence were reported from several parts of the State.
The State government claimed that the Maoist situation was severe in at least eight districts and the overall Naxal activities were under control in other eight districts. Similarly, five districts witnessed zero Naxal incidents. 35 Maoists were arrested while 26 surrendered before the police during the year, the report stated
Overall, the Law and order situation was under control during 2017, the report said.