JOIN USWith over 12,000 cases, Karnataka tops cybercrime list
Karnataka has leapfrogged Uttar Pradesh last year to earn the ignominy of having the highest number of cybercrimes when the country registered a 63.48% rise in such incidents.
When it comes to convicting the perpetrators, Karnataka again falters, as the state could send just ten people in nine cases – 25.7% of 35 cases in which trial ended – to the jail while 31 in 26 cases managed to get acquittal.
However, it was a better show last year compared to 2018 when its conviction rate was a mere 2.3%. In 2017, not a single case ended in conviction in the state.
Not this alone, according to the Crime in India 2019 report by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the rate of cases pending investigations in Karnataka is pegged at 93.1%, the charge-sheeting rate is just 8.1% while cases pending trial is 95.6%. It also tops the list of cybercrimes against women.
Investigators and cybercrime experts attribute the low conviction rate to sloppy investigations by inadequately trained police personnel and flaws in collecting cyber forensics. Many times, they say, lack of credible evidence as well as the lack of expertise of investigators and judicial officers lead to acquittals.
Altogether, police across the country registered 44,456 cases of cybercrime last year with Karnataka clocking 12,020 cases followed by Uttar Pradesh (11,416) and Maharashtra (3,604).
Compare it with 2018 when 27,248 cybercrime cases were registered: Karnataka was placed second with 5,839 as against the topper Uttar Pradesh (6,280) while Maharashtra, which came third, registered 3,511 cases. If one takes the 2016 statistics, Karnataka has registered a nearly 11-fold rise from 1,101.
The rise in cyber crimes across the country saw police last year probing 76,669 cases, including 32,099 which were pending earlier, while investigators left a pendency of 69% or 52,917 cases, the highest for any year.
The three top states together accounted for 61.41% of the cases that were investigated last year, with policemen in Karnataka probing the highest number of 20,016 cases.
Of the 23,752 cases in which investigations were closed in various states, charge-sheets were filed in 9,269 cases (39.1%) in which Karnataka's share was a dismal 116.
Karnataka could not finish investigations in 18,638 out of the over 20,000 cases it handled last year. When it comes to court trials, only 817 cases went to trial in Karnataka of which only 35 were completed, leaving 781 cases pending at various stages of the trial.
Uttar Pradesh often grabs headlines for a variety of crimes but a study says otherwise, at least when it comes to handling cybercrimes. Its rates of charge-sheeting and conviction as well as the speed with which it completes investigation is much higher than Karnataka and Maharashtra as well as the national average.
While the national average for charge-sheeting was 39.1% and cybercrime cases pending investigation at 69%, Uttar Pradesh filed 3,705 charge-sheets (37.7%) while pending cases were just 37% or 5,767 of the 15,589 cases. Maharashtra filed charge-sheets in 33.4% while its pendency is at 74.1%.
On cases that reached trial, 94.9% remain inconclusive across the country. Karnataka had 95.6% cases pending trial while Uttar Pradesh had 96.8% and Maharashtra 98.3%.
However, when it comes to conviction, Uttar Pradesh got conviction in 201 (72.6%) out of the 277 cases in which trials were completed. Maharashtra had a dismal 13% conviction rate.