The Advanced Training School which houses the office of cyber crime cell, in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov. 28: Victims of cyber crime will have to deal with Internet vulnerability for some more days. The state police headquarters is sitting over a proposal for setting up a full-fledged police station in Patna to deal with such new-age crime.

Sources said the cyber crime unit, which works under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), had prepared a detailed proposal for a separate police station to deal with the cases of Internet crime reported from different parts of Bihar.

“The file related to cyber crime police station was sent to the headquarters for approval about six months back. But the file is gathering dust in the headquarters despite the fact that the number of cases related to cyber crime have alarmingly gone up in the past few months,” said a senior police officer.

According to the proposal, one additional superintendent of police, a deputy superintendent of police, two data entry operators, four police inspectors, nine sub-inspectors, 12 constables, four drivers and one steno, were to be posted at the police station, the first-of-its-kind in Bihar.

At present, the cases of Internet crime are lodged at the police stations in the districts. However, most of the cases are unsolved, as no trained police personnel have been posted at the police stations. “Such cases should be handled by trained personnel only,” a deputy inspector-general-rank officer said.

The police officer, who did not wish to be identified, said 26 police personnel drawn from different districts were recently given training by cyber experts at the police academies at Madhuban in Haryana and Gandhinagar in Gujarat. However, their services are not being taken in solving the cases related to cyber crime by district-level officials, the officer said.

“We have also compiled a list of around 60 other police personnel, who are computer savvy and willing to offer service to the cyber crime cell,” the police officer said, adding that even some inspectors and deputy superintendents of police have wished to offer their services.

The newly appointed sub-inspectors, who have basic knowledge of computer, would be given preference in imparting training on cyber crime. “For training, we want to select only those policemen who can serve the department for long,” the officer said.

A separate cyber crime cell has been set up by the Patna police to deal with the complaints of Internet crime. A deputy superintendent of police-rank officer heads it. However, its jurisdiction is limited to Patna, a source in the state police headquarters said.

The cyber crime unit located on the premises of the Advance Training School has been credited with solving several cases of Internet crime in the past 11 months. “We provided assistance in detection of two cases of Internet crime reported in Munger and Lakhisarai districts,” the officer said.