Web of crime

Oct. 17: Cyber cafes in the city have been ignoring police directives to verify the identity of their customers.

While instances of cyber crimes and criminals using Internet cafes to plan and co-ordinate terror strikes are growing in the country, most cyber cafes here are allowing the customers to surf the Internet without checking their identity or keeping record of their names, contact numbers and addresses.

According to guidelines laid down by the police, every cyber cafe should maintain a register for recording names, address, telephone numbers and signatures of their clients.

“They also need to cross-check information given by the customer with a valid identity proof,” a police officer said.

He said the cyber cafes are required to register signing in and signing out timings as well as which computer was allotted to the customer.

The police have also asked the cafe owners to take photographs of their customers using a webcam, CCTV or any other digital device for future reference.

“Cyber cafe owners should strictly comply with these rules but very few do so,” the police officer said.

He admitted that the field-level police officers do not carry out regular checks, which encourages cafe owners to continue flouting norms.

The police only spring to action and question the cafe owners once a crime is committed.

Senior superintendent of police (city) Deepak Choudhury, however, disagreed.

“We carry out regular checks in the city’s cyber cafes from time to time and review their compliance,” he said.

“There is always scope for further enforcement but we are doing our best to prevent misuse of cyber cafes by unscrupulous elements,” the SSP said.

Contradicting the SSP, Ankur Das, a student of B Borooah College, said he frequently visits cyber cafes but has never been asked to show his identity proof.

“I had been asked to write my name and address in the register before allowing me to access the Internet. I was never asked to produce any identity card,” he said.

“Customers take offence when asked to show identity cards and cafes that strictly followed these rules have lost many customers,” say cyber cafe owners.

The police source said investigators had to face difficulties in solving cyber crime cases like sending of threatening emails and hacking because cyber cafes, from where the crime was committed, do not maintain proper record of their customers.

“Another bottleneck is that the state government is yet to frame laws or rules prescribing penalties for those cyber cafes, which are not abiding by the guidelines issued by the police,” the officer said.