Cybercrimes up; cops’ capacity down

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Bhubaneswar: Lack of technical expertise is stated to be a major impediment in resolving rising cybercrimes in the state. This was made amply clear in a report, ‘Crime Statistics for 2018’, released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which also shows state police in poor light in dealing with cybercrimes.
The NCRB report revealed a steady rise in cybercrime cases in the state in the past few years. The state registered 317 cyber crime related cases in 2016 and the figure jumped to 824 with a 160% rise in 2017. Odisha ranked among the top 10 states with maximum number of cyber crime cases and the state’s crime rate also figures prominently as per national data in 2017.
As many as 843 cybercrimes have been registered across the state under various sections of Information Technology Act and IPC Acts in 2018, revealed the report. Odisha remains among the top 10 states with maximum numbers of cybercrimes reported in 2018 as per the crime rate.
Most of the crimes have been registered against cyber criminals for defrauding innocent net surfers. As many as 392 cyber fraud cases including 204 ATM cheating and 158 online banking frauds have been registered in 2018. The state police registered 165 cyber cheating cases under Section 420 of IPC in 2018.
The report also states that Odisha recorded 208 cybercrimes against women in 2018. The state witnessed 174 cases including 166 for publishing or sharing sexually explicit materials involving women under various sub sections of section 67 of IT Act. Odisha police registered seven cases for publishing and sharing sexually obscene videos involving children in 2018.
Meanwhile, the police found extortion as the main motive of cyber criminals in 224 cyber cases in 2018. On other hand, fraud seemed to be the most prominent reason behind 506 cybercrimes reported in 2018.
However, the cops could submit charge-sheet only in 219 cases out of 2006 including 1163 pending cases of the previous years. The charge-sheet submission rate of Odisha police remained 46.2% in 2018.
Similarly, pendency of cyber cases in the courts was also a disturbing fact in 2018. The NCRB report revealed that the courts in Odisha completed trial in only two cases out of 550 cases during the whole year. That apart, these two cases ended up in acquittal of the cyber criminals in 2018. There were 548 cases pending in the courts awaiting judgment with a pendency rate of 99.6% in 2018. The Odisha police arrested 254 accused persons including two ladies out of which three were acquitted later.
The NCRB data also indicated police inefficiency in dealing with cybercrimes. The police have also admitted their lack of expertise in handling all complicated cybercrimes and the need for obtaining technical training to the officials.
A state-of-the-art cyber training and investigation-cum-forensic lab has been set up in Bhubaneswar recently to deal with serious lack of technical knowledge of the cops in the state.