Patna, Dec. 24: Eight months after coming into existence, the cyber crime investigation unit is now almost defunct.

Patna police came up with its ambitious unit, earlier this year, in a bid to fight cyber crime in various forms. But the officers, who are equipped to fight in this format, have gone missing.

The main reason is the absence of policemen who have the technical knowledge of computers and ways to investigate them.

Sources in the police department told The Telegraph that now there was just one police officer who had the required knowledge. The others have been transferred and no real attempts have been made to fill up the vacancies, they said.

Now, deputy superintendent (law and order), Lalit Mohan Sharma, is the only person deputed to man the CCIU, police sources told The Telegraph.

The unit started with several constables and officers who had the knowledge of computers and investigation of cyber crime. One after the other all of them were transferred, and no fresh attempts were made to fill up the posts. The unit is almost defunct now, the sources said.

Police officers said the unit was not a police station in the real sense of the term.

“It was opened in May this year with the initiative of the then Patna superintendent of police, Amit Kumar Jain. One can still complain in the unit or lodge an FIR. The cases are lodged in the police stations, and the investigating officers, if required, can come down to the unit,” a police officer said.

The fact lies that only a very few people in the police know how to deal with and investigate cases of cyber crime. Computer knowledge is not common among the police. This is causing problems for the unit to function even in recruiting, the sources added.

The unit initially had a total of six officers.

When contacted, DSP Lalit Mohan Sharma accepted the staff crunch.

“It would be incorrect to say that the unit has gone defunct and no work is being done. Cases come to us and we are dealing with them. There is a staff problem but we hope things would be fine soon. Let me say that the unit is functioning,” Sharma said.

Earlier, talking to The Telegraph, officers said most of the cases coming down to the unit were related to the exploitation of women through social networking websites.

“People tend to use facebook or orkut to create problems for women. They doctor their pictures by creating a fake account, project them as call girls and post their mobile numbers. Such cases are very common,” Sharma said.

Last week, the police headquarters gave its nod to the creation of a full-fledged cyber crime police station in the state under the Criminal Investigation Department.

The police station will have all the required staff and equipment when it comes for fighting cyber crime.