Rajya Sabha Discussed Status on Cyber Crimes

With the enhanced use of cyberspace, the number of cybercrimes, including financial frauds and crimes relating to women, is also increasing. ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. States/UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes including cybercrime through their Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). The LEAs take legal action as per provisions of law against the offenders. The Central Government supplements the initiatives of the State Governments through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for their capacity building.

Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to all the States & UTs under Cyber Crime Prevention against Women & Children (CCPWC) scheme to support their efforts for setting up cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, training, and hiring of junior cyber consultants. Cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 18 States. The Central Government has taken steps for spreading awareness about cybercrimes, issuance of alerts/ advisories, capacity building/ training of law enforcement personnel/ prosecutors/ judicial officers, improving cyber forensic facilities etc.

The Government has established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to provide a framework and eco-system for LEAs to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. The Government has launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in), to enable the public to report incidents pertaining to all types of cybercrimes, with a special focus on cyber crimes against women and children. A toll-free number 155260 has been operationalised to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints. Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System module has been launched for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.