One of the first few large police stations to be established in the Capital by the British, the Kotwali at North Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, will now house a first-of-its-kind facility dedicated to cracking the whip on cyber crime from Monday.
A part of the historical building, where investigation related to an attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge in 1912 was conducted, will accommodate the first cyber cell of the Delhi Police crime branch, meant exclusively for investigation into serious complaints pertaining to crimes committed online in general and social media in particular.
Sources said similar facilities, manned by 10 to 15 personnel trained specifically to tackle cyber crime, will come up at each of the 11 Delhi Police districts in the Capital by the end of the current year.
“So far, only elite units like the Special Cell and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had such facilities. This will the first-of-its-kind for the crime branch and will be dedicated solely to cyber crime, which means the burden of investigating Internet-related complaints will no longer be borne by just the local police across the Capital,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) said Rajan Bhagat.
The police station’s glorious heritage can be traced back to the start of policing in Delhi. Some of the cases that have come under its jurisdiction include a 1912 assassination attempt on Viceroy Lord Hardinge by Ras Behari Bose.
Bose had thrown a bomb at Lord Hardinge, who was seated on an elephant with his wife, Lady Hardinge, near Red Fort.
It gets its name from the institution of the Kotwal (police head), that has found references in the history books since 1237 A.D., but was put to an end after the Revolt of 1857.
The last Kotwal of Delhi was Gangadhar Nehru, father of Pandit Motilal Nehru and grandfather of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
