Telangana police committed to prevent, register and detect cybercrimes: DGP

The cybercrime helpline 1930 and the National Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) were started by the Central government to facilitate easy and speedy reporting of cybercrimes.

Hyderabad: Director-General of Police M Mahendar Reddy here on Tuesday said the Telangana police were always committed to prevent, register and detect cybercrime cases in the State with the help of all stakeholders to ensure safe use of cyberspace.

Responding to media reports that Telangana topped in cybercrimes and human trafficking as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, he said the reports appeared in the media won’t reflect the true picture about the occurrence of crime.

The high number of cases of cybercrimes and anti-human trafficking registered in the State were attributed to the proactive measures taken by Telangana police to deal with such crimes effectively and render justice to victims of crime.

According to Reddy, cyber offences have been happening all over the country in this digital era. Most cyber offenders have been operating from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal targeting victims across the country.

The Central government has established the Indian Cybercrimes Coordination Centre in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to coordinate cybercrime prevention and detection efforts between various police agencies and stakeholders. The cybercrime helpline 1930 and the National Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) were started by the Central government to facilitate easy and speedy reporting of cybercrimes.

In June 2021, Telangana operationalized NCRP and toll free helpline 1930. Since then an amount of Rs.26.6 crore has been prevented from going to cyber fraudsters after commission of cybercrime, due to timely intervention of Telangana police. The MHA has been regularly reviewing the functioning of this facility with all the States and given directions to convert the online complaints reported into FIRs so that the money can be restored to the victims and offenders be brought to justice.

The FIR conversion percentage of 17.52 of Telangana was the best in the country. Registration of FIRs also can lead to arrest of offenders and recovery of money stolen and thereby render justice to victims.

The fact that Telangana police stood first in conversion of petitions into FIRs in the entire country, though several other States have much more number of cybercrime online petitions received testify the commitment to control crime.

All the States put together, using this portal countrywide have prevented Rs.116 crore from going to cyber fraudsters. Out of this, Rs.26.6 crore has been prevented by Telangana police alone, which is 23 per cent of the total amount, the highest in the country.

Telangana police are in the forefront in identifying and busting nation-wide cybercrime networks of loan apps fraudsters, KBC lottery frauds, Aadhaar enabled payments frauds etc. “We have also discovered and reported links related to 34,000 cases registered country wide and shared with MHA,” he said.

CyCaps, a software developed by Telangana police to track cybercrimes and criminals, was being used by 25 States in the country and the same has been awarded the first prize in IT applications this year by the Central government. The award will be given on August 31, 2022.

Therefore, the increase in registration of cases reflects proactive efforts of Telangana police in fighting the crime effectively. Telangana police always adopted a zero tolerance approach against any kind of crime. “The free registration of FIRs is done by Telangana police with a view to bring every violation on record, so that the grievance of complainants is effectively addressed and offenders are brought to book and successfully prosecuted,” he said.