Other States - Orissa   

‘Cyber crime posing a major challenge to police’

CUTTACK: In the wake of upward movement in reporting of cyber crimes in Orissa, the State Crime Branch police organised a workshop on the subject jointly with E-Bay of Mumbai here on Friday.

“The workshop would immensely benefit the State police in understanding the nuances of the cyber crime, its investigation and legal framework to deal with it”, said DGP Gopal Chandra Nanda after inaugurating the workshop.

At least some 30 officers from police, CID, NIC, OCAC, BPUT, SCRB and SFSL participated in the workshop and exchanged ideas on various aspects of the crime including crime against government such as “cyber terrorism”.

They also discussed other crimes against individuals such as cyber pornography, cyber stalking, and cyber defamation. The participants also expressed concern over crime against property like online gambling, intellectual property infringement and credit card frauds.

State Crime Branch IG B K Sharma said offences in Orissa under IT Act have not so far been very alarming. “Only one case was registered in 2004, six in 2005, three in 2006, seven in 2007 and only one case has been registered in 2008 to date”, he said. Charge sheets in six cases had been submitted to date, he added. To deal with such crimes in the State, a cyber police station was opened here in 2006 which is currently functioning from the state police headquarters. In spite of certain limitations, the police station had successfully investigated some cases including an e-mail threat, said Mr Nanda.

“To upgrade the facilities of the police station, advanced cyber forensic software and hardware are being procured and regular training programmes are organised to educate the investigating officers,” Mr. Nanda said.

Other senior police officers participating in the workshop opined that if police force did not equip itself with the nuances of cyber crime, criminals would soon have an upper hand as computer and Internet users are increasing in society day by day.

India is the fifth largest internet user in the world and accordingly the incidence of cyber crime is increasing alarmingly, said Joy Bandekar of E-Bay. Apprehending that cyber crimes would be a major challenge to police force, he pointed out that maximum internet users in the country are aged below 30 years, of whom only 60 per cent are either graduates or post graduates.

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