Cybercrime cases on the rise in country, says Minister of State for Home

Telangana registered 15,297 cybercrime cases in 2022, followed by 12,556 cases in Karnataka and 10,117 cases in Uttar Pradesh. Although 25,799 persons have been arrested in 2022 in connection with cybercrime cases, only 1,407 persons have been convicted. In 2021, as many as 27,374 persons were arrested whereas only 736 people were convicted for their involvement in cybercrime cases.

New Delhi: India has registered an increasing number of cybercrime incidents in 2022 in comparison to the previous year with States like Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh registering a maximum number of cases. Informing this in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra said that a total of 65,893 cybercrime cases were registered in 2022 in comparison to 52,974 cases registered in 2021.

As per government data, Telangana registered 15,297 cybercrime cases in 2022, followed by 12,556 cases in Karnataka and 10,117 cases in Uttar Pradesh. Mishra said that since the inception of the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, more than 16.72 lakh incidents for financial fraud have been registered till December 4, 2023. “So far, more than Rs 1,000 crore has been saved in more than four lakh incidents,” he said.

Although 25,799 persons have been arrested in 2022 in connection with cyber crime cases, only 1,407 persons have been convicted. In 2021, as many as 27,374 persons were arrested whereas only 736 people were convicted for their involvement in cybercrime cases. Stating that States and UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes, including cybercrime through their law enforcement agencies, Mishar said, “The Central government supplements the initiatives of the States and UTs through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for the capacity building of their Law Enforcing Agencies (LEAs).”

He informed that the Ministry of Home Affairs has operationalised the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal on August 30, 2019, to provide a centralised mechanism to the citizens for online reporting of all types of cybercrime incidents, with a special focus on cyber crimes against women and children.

“Incidents reported on this portal, their conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the State and UT law enforcement agency concerned as per the provisions of the law. The Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System has been developed as a part of the “National Cybercrime Reporting Portal,” he said.

He said that this module provides an integrated platform where all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies of States and UTs, all major banks and financial intermediaries, payment wallets, crypto exchanges and e-commerce companies work in tandem to ensure that quick, decisive and system-based effective action is taken to prevent the flow of money from victim’s account to cyber fraudster’s account.

“The money thus seized is then restored to the victim following due legal process. The platform enables the identification of the various financial channels being misused by the fraudsters for routing the fraud proceeds. A toll-free Helpline number ‘1930’ has been operationalised to get assistance in lodging online cyber incidents,” Mishra said.