Cyber crime FIRs at all police stations

Cuttack, June 27: Police stations across the state will now have to register FIRs for all kinds of cyber crime reported in their jurisdiction.

Crime branch officials have started the process of training police personnel in the rank of inspector-in-charge, sub-inspector and assistant sub-inspector on taking up cyber crime cases. Sixty officers from various parts of the state were imparted training on seizure and collection of digital evidence, investigation in social networking sites, ATM and credit card fraud during a one-day workshop-cum-training programme here today.

"Our plan is to train as many as 600 officers on how to investigate cyber crime, so that the cases can be registered at police station levels," said additional director-general of police (crime branch) B.K. Sharma. The training programme is the first-of-its-kind initiative on part of the crime branch to train the officers on how to take up investigation of the cyber crime cases.

Officials of the only cyber police station functioning under the state CID crime branch here have been asked to assist the police officials in tackling complex cyber crime cases.

A dedicated cyber crime forensic cell will shortly be set up at the state forensic science laboratory in Bhubaneswar for examination of digital evidence collected by the investigating agencies. A senior police official said the proposal for a dedicated cyber crime forensic cell had been submitted to the state government for approval.

The cyber crime forensic cell will play a crucial role in assisting the cops at the proposed second cyber police station of the state that will come up in Bhubaneswar by the end of this year. The official said the police were reluctant to take up cyber crime cases due to lack of expertise and were referring them to the sole cyber crime police station in Cuttack.

Sources said the cyber police station in Cuttack had registered 45 cases in the past three years. Of them, 21 are related to social networking websites. Eleven cyber crime cases have been registered in 2015.<>

Of the 10 cases registered in 2012, four were related to social networking sites. Seven of the 16 cases registered in 2013 were related to harassment on social networking websites. In 2014, 10 of the 19 were related to posting of pornographic and explicit materials by creating fake Facebook accounts and other content on social networking websites.

Sources said once the cyber crime cases were registered at the police station level, the number of such cases would go up to nearly 200 a year.