First-ever cyber crime police station set up

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, AUG. 30. Karnataka created history when the Home Minister, Mr. M. Mallikarjun Kharge, inaugurated the country's first Cyber Crime Police Station here on Thursday.

The Cyber Crime Police Station, housed at the Carlton House, the headquarters of the Corps of Detectives, will have jurisdiction all over the State and will function round the clock.

People could lodge online complaints relating to cyber crimes and receive acknowledgement from the police station whose Station House Officer would be a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, Mr. V. V. Bhaskar, told presspersons.

People could lodge complaints regarding creation and distribution of viruses, hacking, stealing of computer time, theft of intellectual property, software piracy, espionage, manipulation of computer system, financial fraud and vandalism, among others, with the police station.

The website address of the police station would be made public soon. Those who lodge an online complaint without a digital signature would have to a send certified complaint to the police station.

Investigation would be done by DSPs and officers ranked higher than them in accordance with the Information Act, 2000 and the investigating officers would be assisted by a multi- disciplinary expert group.

Mr. Bhaskar said the Super Computer Centre of the Indian Institute of Science and the two software giants - Infosys Technologies and Tata Infosys - had agreed to depute their representatives as nodal officers to the police station. An order had been passed by the Government to use the services of experts on a case by case basis. He said the existing staff of the CoD would be used for the police station which would have a DSP and two inspectors in each shift apart from supporting staff. A programme would be taken up to educate and train officers to investigate cyber crimes.

Mr. Bhaskar said that policing in cyber space was a challenging job and the officers ``will do their best'' to pin down the culprits who committed offences on the Internet.

Referring to the Cyber Crime Cell that exists in the CoD, he said that the cell did not have a legal footing and had received only an official complaint which was being probed. However, the cell had received many complaints relating to theft of Internet time, he added.

After inaugurating the police station, Mr. Kharge said that the IT industry would be greatly benefited by the Cyber Crime Police Station. Karnataka Police was a pioneer in taking measures to investigate cyber crimes. Other States were seeking the State's help and guidance in this regard, he added.

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Section  : Southern States
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