The Odisha government’s white paper on crime, tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday, has painted a worrying picture of rising criminal activity across the state in 2025.
Cognizable offences jumped 7.36 per cent from the previous year to touch 2,29,881 cases, even as police claimed overall law and order remained “largely peaceful”.
Murder cases rose 3.65 per cent to 1,304, meaning one person was killed every 6.7 hours or roughly 3.57 persons daily. Riot cases stood at 1,095. Theft cases shot up 19.02 per cent to 21,192, while cyber crime cases increased 12.07 per cent to 2,803. Road accident cases also grew 3.29 per cent to 12,782.
Rape cases saw a marginal decline of 1.96 per cent — 2,994 cases compared to 3,054 in 2024. Yet the numbers remain alarming: one rape every three hours and an average of 8.20 women and children victimised daily. Police filed charge sheets in 64.46 per cent of rape cases and only 46 per cent of murder cases.
Other key figures include 4,361 dowry cases, 145 dowry deaths and 164 cases of women trafficking. On the positive side, dacoity cases dipped 0.84 per cent to 353, snatching cases fell 1.96 per cent to 6,282, and cheating cases dropped 4.02 per cent to 6,053.
The police achieved an overall charge-sheet rate of 67.52 per cent, submitting 1,55,223 charge sheets out of the total cognizable cases. In cybercrime, 1,569 of the 2,803 cases (56 per cent) were economic offences. Officers identified 1,210 accused and arrested 744.
The white paper states that the state government’s firm resolve has kept the overall law-and-order situation peaceful despite the rise in certain serious crimes.
