Tamil Nadu   

The worrying cyber crimes

The need for a cyber cell and regulation of cyber cafes has become important, says Rajesh Nair

Recent incidents of Internet-related crimes have made it necessary for creating a cyber wing of the territorial police for speedy detection of such cases. A few cyber crimes such as posting obscene messages on-line, eve-teasing through SMS and soliciting for prostitution have surfaced in the territory in the last two years.

In February, the crime wing of the territorial police received a complaint from the Registrar of the Pondicherry University about an incident of on-line character assassination of a girl student.

A bad hat opened a fake page in a website, which has become a popular domain among students for meeting, masquerading as a particular student of the university. He then posted the girl's personal details, including contact details, and extended an open invitation for flirting. The page also contained obscene messages about her.

The crime wing traced the mischief-maker after a long hunt and he happened to be her college mate. Senior Superintendent of Police (Crime and Intelligence) B. Srikanth, who cracked the case, said the complainant did not want to proceed with the case because of its "sensitive nature."

"The case was cracked without much hassle because the boy used his personnel computer and operated from his house. Things would have been different, had he operated from a cyber café," he said.

He said one had to be extremely cautious in sharing personnel details even with close friends. He added that a similar case of on-line sexual harassment of an engineering student was reported.

Superintendent of Police North region V. Vijayakumar cites three cyber crimes, including the incident of soliciting clients through Net for prostitution, in the last one year.

Now, with the increase in the number of such cases, the need for a cyber cell, like in other States, and regulation of cyber cafes has become all the more important. Till now, the police do not have a count over the cafes, which have sprouted in every nook and corner of the town.

Cyber parlours

"There are Internet parlours operating from even individual houses. We have to see the changing scenario, especially the flow of both foreign and domestic tourists of the territory. It would be difficult to track someone, if our net parlours became a source for security breach," says a Special Branch officer.

No expertise

As of now, the police have only a general knowledge about cyber crime and do not have the technical expertise or technological wherewithal to tackle an extremely complex cyber case. The need had been felt within the department and only three months ago, they got a general briefing from an officer attached to the cyber cell of the Tamil Nadu Police.

The Tamil Nadu police have a proper system in place to regulate the Internet parlours and technically equipped to handle cyber crimes. They have put in place a fool-proof security system to check mischief-makers. For example, the browser has to provide his valid personnel photo identity to the Internet centre before using the service.

Elders with proper identity should accompany children to the browsing centre for using the service. Clocks in the centre should be synchronised with Indian Standard Time.

The territorial police could emulate other States in forming a cyber cell and regulating the net cafes to tackle such cases in future.

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