State to have 3 more cyber police stations

Bhubaneswar: A state-of-the-art cyber training centre equipped with advanced cyber forensic lab for quick disposal of cyber crime cases will come up near the office of the Economic Offences Wing of the state Crime Branch here within three months.
The Director General of Police (DGP) RP Sharma Monday informed the media that the advanced training-cum-cyber forensic lab will greatly help in solving the cyber crime cases that witnessed an exponential growth in the last five years.
Sharma was speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of the three-phased training programme organised by the Crime Branch of the Odisha Police at Police Bhawan near Nalco Square here.
Sharma said, “Cybercrime cases have been increasing rapidly in the state despite the fact that many cases are not reported as the local police stations refuse to accept the complaints in the far flung areas on the pretext of lacking expertise. There are over 867 cases registered in the state in 2018 while 240 such cases have been registered in the first quarter of the current year.”
He also said that steps are being taken by the government to open three new cyber police stations at Bhubaneswar, Balasore and Jeypore in addition to the four existing cyber police stations at Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela keeping in view the mounting cases relating to cyber crimes.
Meanwhile, cyber experts from New Delhi are imparting training to the cops in the four-day training programme which commenced Monday. Two batches of 130 cops each from across the state will be imparted the technical knowledge by the experts to deal with the cybercrime related cases. As many as six cops from every district have been participating in the training programme.
The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has also partnered with the Odisha Police as the main focus of the this year’s training session has been on the cybercrimes like child pornography and cyber bullying affecting the children.
Speaking on the event, UNICEF’s Odisha Chief, Monica Nelson, said children are the most vulnerable to the cybercrimes and it poses a grave threat to the life of the children.
The CB is aimed at creating a pool of 200 police officers having expertise to deal with cybercrimes.
Many senior police officials including Additional Director General (ADG), CB Santosh Upadhyaya were present at
the event.