Cyber police stations in Mandi, Dharamsala denotified despite exponential rise in cases.

January 11, 2023

Despite an exponential rise in cybercrimes across the state, two newly opened cyber police stations at Mandi and Dharamsala have been denotified by the new government.
Both police stations were opened at the fag end of the tenure of the last government though their proposals were chalked out in November 2021 by the state CID. Though no infrastructure was created and just officials were posted there, the need to strengthen these was a dire necessity given the rising cybercrimes in the state.
There are three police ranges in the state — Southern, Central and Northern. Each has four districts within its purview. There is barely one such police station in Shimla to handle cases from all 12 districts.
The two cyber crime police stations were supposed to ease the burden of the lone cyber police station in Shimla by making available specially trained cyber warriors.
The Police Department was endeavouring to open such police stations in 10 districts, barring the two tribal districts, in view of the increased reporting of such crimes on the National Crime Recording Portal through toll free number 1930. On an average, 5,000 complaints per month are received on the portal.
As many as 368 FIRs were registered in the southern range, 129 in the central range and 57 in the northern range from 2017 to 2021. As many as 31 FIRs were registered at cyber crime’s Shimla-based police station.
Similarly, cases of cyber frauds have registered an steep rise. As many as 1,234 cases have been registered in the last five years in the southern range, 1,669 were registered in central range, 478 in the northern range while 4,302 were registered at Shimla.
The number of social media complaints too have witnessed an increase with the CID’s cyber police station registering 3,446 cases in the last five years while miscellaneous cases, comprising other cyber-related crimes, touched 3,010 in the same period as per figures secured from Shimla.
Field officials face handicaps like the delayed receipt of data pertaining to Facebook, WhatsApp usage of an accused as well as the failure to get the pinpoint location of an accused from most cellular companies while investigating a cyber crime. This often impedes investigation as the first few hours of a crime are the most crucial.
Neighbouring states have taken a lead in stepping up their preparedness like move to recruit experts and opening more cyber police stations.