The Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS), which was formed a few months ago and is functioning from the premises of Central Crime Branch(CCB), registered 142 cases for cyber offences in the last year.
A senior police officer said: “The station was carved out from the Central Crime Branch and has been functioning from the premises of the office of Commissioner of Police in Vepery since last July. The cases relating to all cyber offences are referred to the officers attached to this station. More personnel are being added. Last year, we registered 142 cases. As many as 121 cases were disposed of with filing chargesheets in 39 cases and 82 cases were disposed of otherwise. As many as 55 of the accused were arrested last year.”
Laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards, bank passbooks, fake PAN, Aadhaar cards, debit cards, vehicles, a drone, gold and silver ornaments that were stolen in various cases were seized by the personnel of the police station. The seized amount was reverted online.
Among the major arrests were that of four accused in West Bengal for swindling ₹24 lakh from the bank account of a leading hospital in the city. It had arrested two accused in Ahmedabad for the offence of creating a fake website in the name of a leading tour operator in the city and offering tour packages to Maldives and Dubai at very low cost and cheating. Two Nigerian nationals were arrested last year for allegedly cheating people after making relationships through matrimonial website. YouTuber PUBG Madan was arrested for circulating abusive speech through PUBG game in his two YouTube channels.
Social media commentator Kishore K. Swamy and BJP functionary Kalyanaraman were arrested for circulating provocative videos in social media. Fourteen of the accused, including the two, were detained under Goondas Act.
Last year, 12,835 complaints were received by CCPS, CCB and 12 cyber crime teams. Out of them, 242 cases were registered and 4,156 complaints were disposed of. About ₹6.75 crore was reverted back to the complainants.
