On the question on ‘Cyber Crimes’ in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra stated the following in a written reply on Tuesday.
The ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. The States/UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes including cyber crimes through their Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs).
The LEAs take legal action as per the provisions of law against persons involved in cyber crime.
The Central Government supplements the initiatives of the States/UTs through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for their capacity building.
To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include the following:
(i) Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)’ to deal with all types of cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
(ii) The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) has been launched on 30th August 2019, as a part of the I4C, to enable public to report incidents pertaining to all types of cyber crimes, with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children. Cyber crime incidents reported on this portal, their conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the State/UT Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) concerned as per the provisions of the law.
(iii) The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, under I4C, has been launched for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters. A toll-free Helpline number ‘1930’ has been operationalized to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints.
(iv) The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform, namely ‘CyTrain’ portal has been developed under the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), for capacity building of police officers/judicial officers through online course on critical aspects of cyber crime investigation, forensics, prosecution etc. along with certification. More than 28,700 Police Officers from States/UTs are registered and more than 7,800 Certificates issued through the portal.
(v) Seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams have been constituted under I4C by on boarding States/UTs to address the challenges of cyber crime hotspots/areas having multi jurisdictional issues to enhance the coordination framework among the LEAs of the States/UTs.
(vi) To spread awareness on cyber crime, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include; dissemination of messages through SMS, I4C social media account i.e. Twitter handle (@CyberDost), Facebook (CyberDostI4C), Instagram (CyberDostI4C), Telegram (cyberdosti4C), Radio campaign, etc., engaged MyGov for publicity in multiple mediums, organizing Cyber Safety and Security Awareness weeks in association with States/UTs, publishing of Handbook for Adolescents/Students, etc. The States/UTs have also been requested to carry out publicity to create mass awareness.
Since inception of Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, more than 7 lakh complaints have been registered including in Odisha till January 31, 2023. So far, financial amount of more than Rs. 235 Crore have been saved in more than 1.90 lakh complaints. More than 52,000 complaints have been disposed of.
Ministry of Home Affairs has provided central assistance under ‘Assistance to States for Modernization of Police’ Scheme to the State Governments for the acquisition of latest weaponry, training gadgets, advanced communication/forensic equipment, Cyber Policing equipment etc. The State Governments formulate State Action Plans (SAPs) as per their strategic priorities and requirements including combating cyber crimes.
