Cops, buck up on cybercrime probes

The conviction rate in the past year was zero

It is a matter of concern that only about 5% of the number of accused in cybercrime cases registered in Bengaluru were traced over two years. Of the 24,795 incidents registered, police have managed to trace the accused in only 1,376 cases, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra has informed the Legislative Council. The conviction rate in the last one year is zero. Karnataka was the first state to establish an exclusive cybercrime police station at CID headquarters, Bengaluru, in 2001. Subsequently, the government set up CEN (Cyber, Economic Offences and Narcotics) police stations across the state, but their performance has been less than optimum. Among all Indian cities, Bengaluru registers the highest number of cybercrimes. According to DGP Praveen Sood, Rs 70 crore belonging to nearly 6,500 victims of cybercrimes are frozen in the bank accounts of fraudsters.

The police plan to extend the Cyber Information Report (CIR) facility, where a complaint can be lodged by dialling 112, to the entire state by the end of January. The facility has been available in Bengaluru for about 10 months now, but the CEN wing continued to behave as if it were still in a previous era, insisting that an FIR be lodged first before the investigation is initiated. Speed is of the essence in cybercrimes as the time gap between the occurrence of the offence and police action gives a window to the accused to complete the crime, such as withdrawing the money that has been fraudulently transferred to their account, but also to manipulate digital footprints, making it difficult to trace the criminal.

The DGP’s announcement that the CIR facility will be operational 24X7 is welcome as a real-time investigation is crucial, all the more because cybercrimes ranging from online banking/OTP/ATM frauds to child pornography, offences against women and fake news are on the rise, having gone up 12% in 2020 compared to 2019. With the increasing penetration of the internet and mobile phones, more citizens will become vulnerable to such crimes in the future. Bengaluru boasts of being the IT capital of India, and the CEN personnel themselves do not lack talent. A few of them have even won ‘Cyber Cop of the Year’ awards. Unfortunately, many senior officers are not familiar with cyberspace, and a few of them have themselves fallen prey to fraudsters. Unless the entire police force is educated, trained and sensitised to the potential enormity of digital crimes, the detection and conviction rates will continue to remain poor.