Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have the most number of dedicated cyber crime police stations, says MHA
Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra led the country in the number of dedicated cyber crime police stations in 2021, according to data from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The numbers were shared by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on December 13.
The minister said in his reply, “To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps for spreading awareness about cyber crimes, issuance of alerts and advisories, capacity building and training of law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, judicial officers, improving cyber forensic facilities, etc. The Government has established the Indian Cyber Crime Crime Coordination (I4C) to provide a framework and eco-system for Local Enforcement Agencies to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.”
The reply also said the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) compiles and publishes the statistical data on cyber crime police stations in its publication ‘Data on Police Organisations’. The latest published report is for 2021.
According to BPRD data, there are 202 dedicated cyber crime police stations in 28 states and eight Union Territories in the country. Of these, Tamil Nadu has 46 and Maharashtra 43, followed by 31 in West Bengal, 19 in Kerala, 14 in Gujarat, and 11 in Karnataka. These police stations only register cases related to cyber and Information Technology crimes. They generally take up cases requiring specialised probes. All other police stations too register cyber and IT crime cases.
Data showed states with higher registration of cybercrime cases but fewer number of dedicated cyber crime police stations are: Telangana which registered 10,313 cybercrime cases and had three cyber crime police stations, Uttar Pradesh with two dedicated police stations saw the registration of 8829 cases, and Assam registered over 4800 cybercrime cases but had no dedicated cyber crime police station in 2021.
An officer from Maharashtra Cyber, the Nodal Cyber Crime investigation agency of the Maharashtra government, said, “Every police jurisdiction in Pune—district police units and city police commissionerates—have dedicated cyber crime police stations in Maharashtra. This has facilitated a focused probe of serious cyber crime cases by trained teams. Maharashtra Cyber conducts regular training and refresher courses for the cyber crime police stations and staff from other police stations too.”
