Cyber desk to come up in 100 police stations by 2024 end

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): In two years, as many as 100 police stations will get a dedicated cyber desk, said a senior here on Friday. Thousands of complaints go unaddressed because of the absence of a dedicated desk at the police stations to look into the cases of the cyber frauds. To plug in the lacuna, the cyber headquarters police have planned to set up their desks across the state by the end 2024.

To combat the cyber criminals, the police personnel posted at police stations are being given training in checking online frauds , however, a dedicated desk to deal with such cases would significantly bring down the online fraud cases. The cyber headquarters will set up one desk in 100 police stations across the state, besides, a separate desk will be also instituted at the SP office in all 52 district headquarters, said ADG Cyber, Yogesh Deshmukh while talking to Free Press. Well trained personnel on these desks will be competent to redress the complaints of the cyber fraud victims. With the growing usage of internet, particularly for digital transactions, the number of cybercrime has increased manifold. Thousands of complaints regarding online frauds like money siphoning, hacking, stalking, uploading obscene videos, child pornography are being reported every year at 1,100 police stations operating across the state.  

In the state headquarters in the year 2022, as many as 86,604 complaints were filed but only a few could be addressed because of the lack of dedicated desk and staff trained in anti-cyber crime in police stations. In many districts, the cybercrime complainants were pushed from one police station to another and sometimes the complainant had even to approach cyber headquarters in Bhopal to get their case addressed. “Currently while attending the cyber fraud cases, the police personnel posted in districts have to come to the headquarters to get an expert view. But with the setting up of these SP desks, the cops will no longer have to come running to headquarters, which will save the time and resources and help in getting early redressal oif the complaint,” the ADG said.

Awareness the key: The ADG said that only awareness can save a person from falling prey to cyber crooks. “For this we are running programmes at the schools, colleges and now have planned to run such programmes in fete where thousands of people come. They will be informed about the tactics of the cyber fraudsters and also the standard operating procedure (SOP) to remain safe in the cyber world,” said the officer.