After economic offences and terrorism, cyber crime is the biggest challenge faced by the Mumbai police. In order to try and tackle the menace in a better way, the Mumbai police has sent the state government four proposals. The cyber crime department is also reeling with a major manpower crunch and Mumbai police hopes that these proposals will help it find a way around that problem.
The first proposal is to amend section 78 of the Information Technology Act, which deals with powers for investigating cases under this act. Any officer of the rank of a police inspector (PI) or above can investigate IT Act cases states section 78 of the act. The crime branch of the Mumbai Police, which handles the specialised cyber cell, wants this particular section amended allowing police sub-inspectors (PSI) also to investigate cyber crime. While a PI has decades of experience, a PSI is the first designation given to officers recruited through MPSC.
As constables can become PSIs through promotion or internal exams and the sanctioned strength of PSIs are increasing steadily, the amendment to the Act will substantially increase the number of investigating officers empowered to deal with IT Act cases.
The second proposal is that it wants a one-step promotion for assistant police inspectors. If this is approved on a stop-gap basis before the earlier proposal is approved, the APIs can be promoted as PI and taken into the cyber cell. He will then be competent to investigate cases under the present IT Act.
The third proposal is to create a state-of-the-art training centre for the cyber cell where police officers can be given in-depth training to handle cyber crime cases. “We want every officer to be given one computer. Technical experts and police officers who have worked with the cyber cell will provide them with the much-needed training. The idea is to make them competent to handle such cases,” said an officer, adding, “The training is very critical here not only to investigate a case but also because evidence gathering is technical in nature and we need to connect all the links together to make a strong case.”
The fourth proposal is to have four more specialised cyber police cells taking the total to five. The idea is to have one each for five regions of Mumbai police. This will lead to division of the massive work thus enabling speedy investigation and filing of chargesheets.
Too few cops handle too many cases A manpower crunch in the sole cyber cell at BKC, Bandra and a single courtroom in the Esplanade court near CST to deal with the rising menace of cyber crime is making it difficult for crime branch to curb crime, said sources from the crime branch. Till now the cell has not got a conviction in any of the 23 cases that have been disposed of.
While a proposal of having 286 men and officers included as part of the four more cyber cells yet to be sanctioned, presently a skeletal staff of 37 police constables and 16 officers in cyber cell are struggling to crack cyber crime cases.
“With leaves, holidays and sick leaves, the manpower further gets narrowed down. About three PI and 13 API and PSI are in the cell. As only a PI is empowered to deal with these cases, the three PIs are handling about 122 cases each, which is hampering the quality of probe,” said a crime branch officer.
On the other hand, whilst all the 93 police stations can register a cyber offence case, the complainants are guided to go the cyber cell at BKC. “The police stations have been instructed to register the cases and seek technical assistance from cyber cell,” said another crime branch officer.
Another issue is the absence of adequate number of courts like those given to the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) last year. Due to this, at least over 126 cases are pending trials over the years. A cyber expert requesting anonymity said, “Not only do they require dedicated courts but the magistrates too need to be apprised on the nature of evidence in cyber crime, which is technical.”
