Ranchi: Come Wednesday, the capital will boast the state’s first cyber thana that will not only take up cases related to financial frauds of a minimum of Rs 2 lakh but also extend technical aid to police dealing with crimes involving use of modern technologies.
This ambitious thana, headquartered at Old DIG office near Kutchery Chowk, has been equipped with sophisticated devices and software like SIM cracker, CDR analyser, real-time tracker and forensic kits, among others.
“This thana has been formed under the Information Technology Act and will work under the Crime Investigation Department (CID),” said DSP Sumit Kumar, who will head the thana having its jurisdiction across Jharkhand.
SP (cyber), CID, Jaya Roy said the office of DGP D.K. Pandey had issued a circular last year, stating that the cyber thana would take up investigation into cases in which fraud amount was not less than Rs 2 lakh. Bank, ATM, Internet frauds of less than the said amount would remain with the local police station concerned but the cyber thana will provide technical assistance to local police, the SP added.
“At this moment, certain things are under discussion like whether local police station concerned should lodge a zero FIR and then forward a case to the cyber thana or a victim can directly approach it when the fraud amount is Rs 2 lakh or more,” said Roy, and added: “I think it will be both. After the inauguration on Wednesday, it will start taking up cases on a regular basis.”
Asked whether cases of online harassment and intimidation, which are frequently reported on social websites, would also be probed by the cyber thana, Roy said a detailed circular would be issued to the media to create awareness so that people got to know what kind of complaints could be lodged at the new thana.
Sources in the CID said a total of 43 cases of cyber fraud were reported from across the state in 2013. Around 130 such cases took place in 2014 and 150 in 2015. And though the cyber thana will take a couple of days to become functional, cyber cell officers have been providing technical support in around 80 cases, The Telegraph reported.
A senior officer at the police headquarters said two inspectors and three sub-inspectors had already been appointed at the cyber thana. “These apart, the CID has hired two experts – Kumar Saurabh as chief technical officer and Mini Rani Sharma as technical officer – to provide technical support in various investigations on a contractual basis for one year. More police officers will be sourced from the CID. Officers of the rank of inspector and above will be appointed as investigation officer in cyber cases,” he added.
Since it will deal with different sets of crime, officers and personnel deployed at the unit will have to undergo a detailed and intensive training, he added.
Training
ADG (CID) Ajay Kumar Singh on Monday inaugurated a eight-day training of a batch of assistant sub-inspectors from across the state to familiarise them with tools and techniques used for scientific and advanced investigations.
The session at Old DIG office is being organised by Investigation Training Institute for Jharkhand Police established by the state government.<>”ASIs are the backbone of investigation and for accurate and flawless probe, they need to know about advanced tools and techniques,” Singh said.
CID IG Sampat Meena, CID SP Jaya Roy and other senior officers were also present.