BHUBANESWAR: The Cyber Crime and Economic Offence police station in capital city has been bolstered with the appointment of another inspector rank officer and a sub-inspector (SI).
Commissionerate Police headquarters has also appointed a dedicated assistant commissioner of police (ACP) rank officer to supervise investigation of cases registered by the police station. Usually, an ACP rank officer is in charge of three to five police stations in the city. Sources said the newly -appointed SI had earlier received training on investigating economic offences. The appointment of an additional inspector will lead to speedy investigation of cyber crime cases as Information Technology (IT) Act related offences can only be investigated by officers of inspector rank and above. The state government has already planned to appoint DSPs in all cyber police stations of the state and the process is expected to start in the coming days.
The Commissionerate Police decided to enhance the manpower of cyber police station in the capital with immediate effect keeping in view the significant rise in complaints related to online frauds. Prior to the new postings, the police station had one inspector, three SIs and an assistant sub-inspector (ASI).
Sources said on an average, the cyber crime police station here receives around 15 complaints everyday and registers at least one case. Most of the complaints are related to online frauds on the pretext of providing higher returns on investments, work from home opportunities, hotel bookings, among others.
In the last four months, the cyber crime police station has received complaints of online financial frauds of more than a whopping `9 crore. The police have managed to recover `16.83 lakh and block over 300 accounts of the cyber fraudsters during the same period.
“Earlier, there was one inspector rank officer in the police station. It was getting difficult for one officer to investigate all the cyber crime offences. The officer also has to approach various organisations including banks to block the fraudsters’ accounts where the cheated money was transferred,” said a senior police officer.
The enhancement of manpower and the supervision by a dedicated ACP rank officer will help in easing the workload of the police station and also help in providing better services to the citizens, he said.