Bhubaneswar: In the face of the alarming rise in cyber crimes in the Capital City, the Commissionerate Police seems to be dragging its feet over measures to counter the clear and present danger. Sample this. Online criminals mopped up over Rs 10.61 crore from the account of unsuspecting citizens using various pretexts in just one month (August), which is the highest figure for a month so far this year. Moreover, in just three months (May–July), the Cyber Crime and Economic Offences Police Station, the dedicated unit to investigate cybercrimes, had logged eight cases of UPI, debit/credit card fraud every day. Also, as many as 312 complaints of online harassment and 310 cases of website fraud, spam calls and text messages had been reported during this period.
Meanwhile, highly placed sources in the City police said that the technological preparedness to prevent and detect the growing menace of cybercrimes seems to be inadequate on account of administrative delays. To begin with, sources said, a proposal to engage two cyber forensic experts, and an equal number of IT and finance/accounts experts has been gathering the dust since 2023. Even though some appointments in the lower rung have been made at the Cyber Crime and Economic Offences Police Station in the past two months, the lack of appointments in the upper rungs has resulted in massive pendency in the detection of the cases.
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Besides, sources also stressed the need for setting up of a Cyber Crime Centre of Excellence in the City unit which will bring in the technical expertise necessary for the early detection of crimes. According to the Commissionerate Police statistics, as many as 3,660 cyber fraud complaints had been received between January and September this year, involving a total amount of Rs 68.49 crore. The police managed to freeze Rs 11.86 crore of the fraudulent funds, while a total of Rs1.86 crore has been returned to the victims
DEBADURLLAV HARICHANDAN, OP
