Bhubaneswar: At a time when the state is witnessing a surfeit of cybercrime cases, the Odisha Police is all set to launch the cybercrime digital forensic laboratory-cum-training centre from the first week of January 2020.
As per the available data, there were around 317 cybercrime cases registered in the state in 2016. The number rose to 824 – around 160 per cent rise in 2017. The figure stood at 867 in 2018.
As per government data, the state witnessed 406 cybercrime cases during the first five months of 2019. Senior police officers have time and again revealed the menacingly growing cybercrime incidents as a major challenge for the state.
On the other hand, the data also unraveled the fact that investigations are pending in a large number of such cases due to lack of enough expertise by the state police officials investigating cybercrimes that involved highly complex technicalities.
The Crime Branch (CB) has been taking up various initiatives to rein in the rising cyber crime cases from issuing advisory to aware the public and organise training programmes to sleuths for better probe into the cybercrimes.
The CB has given cyber training to more than 1,000 police personnel in the rank of constables to sub-inspectors during November and December only and has aimed at increasing the number in 2020.
Speaking to Orissa POST, Additional DG Santosh Kumar Uapadhyaya revealed that the cybercrime digital forensics laboratory-cum-training centre is scheduled to start operating from the first week of January 2020. The CB has spent Rs 2.30 crore to establish the centre where the sleuths will get trained to effectively probe cyber crime cases. The cyber complex located in Bhubaneswar was funded by Centre under Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme.
“Cyber experts will impart training to police officers, persecutors as well as the judicial officers to effective use of digital evidences. The persecutors trained at the centre can achieve success in convicting the cyber criminals using the digital evidences quite effectively,” Upadhyaya said.
He also revealed that 30 police officials will get training at the centre in every batch.