Visakhapatnam gets first cyber crime police station
VISAKHAPATNAM: Vizag has got its first cyber crime police station and analysis lab after years of wait. DGP RP Thakur, along with City Police Commissioner Mahesh Chandra Laddha, inaugurated the facility at VUDA Complex here on Friday.
According to the DGP, the lab will have advanced mobile forensic tools, including social media analysis tools, video analysis tools, forensic tools, password detection tools and a few other sophisticated equipment, which are required to track cyber crooks. The facility will have a circle inspector, three sub-inspectors, 12 constables, a few home guards and a technical team.
“While in 2016, the recovery percentage in cyber crime cases was 0.18 per cent, last year it was 2.6 per cent. In the current year (till date), the recovery rate has been 16 per cent. Till now, Visakhapatnam cyber crime police have arrested about 90 cyber crooks. With the newly inaugurated police station, the investigation procedure will improve and property recoveries will be better,” said Thakur.
For record, Vizag tops the State in cyber crime cases. It has also been registering the most number of cyber crime cases in South India. In 2017, the city registered 576 cyber crime cases as against 442 in 2016. Even this year, 406 cyber crime cases have been registered in the city so far. The city police, in spite of problems related to shortage of staff and inadequate equipment, have been running a cyber crime investigation cell at II Town Police Station.
Hundreds of cases therefore, have been pending in the police cell, as it has been tough for the cops to pursue complex cases, in the absence of adequate manpower and proper equipment. Initially after the GO was passed to set up a cyber crime PS in 2015, there were problems related to land acquisition. After finalising a temporary block at the VUDA complex, works began at the beginning of the year. Initially, assistance was received from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Thiruvananthapuram.
Modern cyber forensic lab in Vijayawada
Director-General of Police RP Thakur has said state-of-the-art cyber forensic lab (CFL) will be set up in Vijayawada with an estimated budget of H300 crore. The DGP was speaking after inaugurating Cyber Crime Police Station and Analysis Centre in Visakhapatnam on Friday, the second one in the State after Vijayawada. “Training centres-cum-cyber crime police stations will be set up in Anantapur, Kurnool, Tirupati, Rajahmundry and Vizianagaram. Two are already functioning in the State,” he said. Cyber kits just like forensic kits, will be given to the cyber crime police teams. These kits will help them collect evidence during investigation, he said.