Patna: The police headquarters will in the next couple of months will start a cyber crime control centre in Patna to deal with rising cases of cyber crime in Bihar.

The control centre will be connected with the 74 cyber crime units being set up in Bihar's 40 police districts, including Naugachhia and Bagaha, to function under the economic offences (EOU) unit.

A senior official associated with the cyber crime control project said Bihar has experienced a growth of over 500 per cent in the cyber crime cases in the past five years. On an average, 106 per cent rise in such cases was recorded in 2017. Besides, 1,000 cyber fraud complaints are, on an average, reported to police stations across Bihar every year. Majority of them, however, remain under preliminary investigation because of lack of knowledge to solve the cases.

Sources said the cyber crime control centre would be set up near the EOU office on Bailey Road with an exclusive unit for cases related to women and children. The control centre would also hire a chief programmer to help the cops manning the cyber crime units in the districts.

It will also have a forensic lab and police associated with the cyber crime control centre will prepare typical case studies that were hard to solve.

Additional director-general, EOU, Jitendra Singh Gangwar said the centre will be made operational from the EOU's under-construction building by June this year. The basic facilities were being provided to the centre, he said, adding that funds have been released. "The cyber crime control centre will also have an e-library, which will be set up with the assistance of the Union home ministry's cyber crime protection unit," he said.

Another EOU officer said a three-storeyed state-of-the-art building would be set up later to house the cyber crime control unit for which the land acquisition process was underway. "The detailed project report of the building is being prepared," he said.

According to authoritative sources, 333 cyber crime cases were lodged in 2017. "Such cases are rising with an increase in online financial transaction, prompting the police headquarters to set up a control centre in Patna and cyber crime units in the districts," said an EOU official.

Sources said Bihar accounts for two-three per cent of the total cyber crimes reported in India, which amounts to almost 2,100 cyber crimes a year.

The EOU official admitted that the figures were still just a part of the actual number of cyber crimes in Bihar since most people don't report these cases. "Very few people know that online harassment is a punishable offence," he told The Telegraph.

Even people who lodge formal complaints don't get much relief from the investigating officers, he said. "There have been instances when the complaints were not forwarded to the cyber crime cell," the officer added. Yet another officer said as most investigating officers are not techno-savvy, they prefer to keep such cases under wraps for months, waiting to be transferred to another posting.

Former director-general of police Pramod Kumar Thakur, who retired on February 28, had suggested officers to get ready to meet the challenge of cyber crime as these cases would soon pose a challenge.