Hyderabad: Probing cybercrime costs cops a bomb
Hyderabad: It is not just the victims in cybercrime cases who are finding their purses getting thinner. Cops investigating a majority of cybercrime cases are seeing their budgets being wiped out faster than ever. The increase in cybercrime cases, officials say, is costing a bomb to the police with huge amounts being spent for identifying […]
Hyderabad: It is not just the victims in cybercrime cases who are finding their purses getting thinner. Cops investigating a majority of cybercrime cases are seeing their budgets being wiped out faster than ever. The increase in cybercrime cases, officials say, is costing a bomb to the police with huge amounts being spent for identifying and nabbing suspects involved in these crimes.
With cybercrime having no boundaries, fraudsters — based in faraway hideouts across the country — are duping victims in the city. “In most cases, the offenders are from far off places like Delhi, Chandigarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. So teams have to be sent there to nab them. It involves spending a huge amount of money, time and manpower,” a Hyderabad police official said.
In some cases, the police manage to nab the culprits by spending anywhere between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. But in some sensational cases, the expenses can go up to Rs 20 lakh. “In the Chinese loan app case, we had to spend around Rs 20 lakh. It was a pan-India probe and several teams moved around different States,” the official said.
Even that amount appeared small in front of the Mahesh Bank e-fraud case investigation, which set back the department by a whopping Rs 57 lakh. “Around 100 police officials led teams to almost 15 States including the far northeast of the country to nab all those involved in the case. That is said to be the highest spent on any case so far,” an official said.
Usually, when police teams head to a particular State to nab an offender, they go by train. In some cases where time is a factor, they rush by flights. A team comprises an Inspector, a Sub-inspector and two or three constables.
“Right from train fare, hotel or lodge expenses, local travel, food and all other expenses are to be taken care of by the department. If the suspect is caught, we have to buy a ticket for him as well to bring him to the city,” the official said, adding that in some cases like financial frauds, the police have to hire experts to assist them, with these experts also having to be paid a handsome sum.
Many cyber fraudsters in fact know that the police will hesitate to spend so much money to arrest them, and that itself emboldens them. However, things are changing. “When it comes to Telangana, the spending is usually not a hindrance because we want to nab the suspects at any cost so that their arrest is a deterrent for others,” another official said.
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