Cyber crime cases in Mumbai still buffering, NCRB says investigation pending in 1,908, trial in 398

rime were disposed of by the Mumbai Police in 2016.

MUMBAI TOPPED a list of 19 metropolitan cities with a population of over 20 lakh for recording the most number of cyber crimes in 2016. The city also drags its feet in cases of cyber crimes, revealed pendency figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Cyber crime cases also have a slow disposal rate in the courts. This underlines the desperate need for the state to accelerate the process of dealing with such cases, including giving cyber police adequate staff and setting up designated courts to hear cyber crime cases.

As per the latest figures released on Thursday, a total of 322 cases of cyber crime were disposed of by the Mumbai Police in 2016. Cases considered to have been disposed of include ones transferred to other police stations, cases where there was no sufficient ground for investigation, ones in which final reports were filed and also cases in which the police filed a chargesheet.

The Bengaluru police come second to Mumbai in terms of the number of cyber crime cases registered, but they were able to dispose of 777 cases. Hyderabad and Jaipur, two cities that also have a lower cyber crime rate than Mumbai, disposed of 380 and 574 cases respectively. As a result of its slow rate of disposal and past pendency, the number of cyber crime cases pending investigation with the Mumbai Police now stands at 1,908 cases. The second-highest pendency rate is that of Bengaluru at 960 cases, less than half of Mumbai’s. The pendency rate for Mumbai for the year 2016, as per NCRB data, stands at 85.6 per cent.

Another problem is the pendency of trials in cyber crime cases. Although the Mumbai Police was second-highest in terms of sending 129 cases for trial to courts — Lucknow was highest with 184 — during the past year, trials were completed in only four cases, two of which ended in acquittal with other two resulting in convictions. As a result, at the end of 2016, cases pending trial totalled 398 — more than any other city, with both Bengaluru and Lucknow coming in second with 215 cases pending trial. The pendency percentage in trials of cyber crime cases at the end of 2016 was 99 per cent. The best performing city in terms of pendency in trials involving cyber crime was Patna with 82.1 per cent pendency rate.

A senior officer said that in the past, the pace of cyber crime investigation was not up to the mark. The first conviction that the Mumbai cyber cell got was in July 2015. “It was only in the past few years that there has been an emphasis on completing investigations in cases that have been pending for years. There also persists a problem of shortage in staff that impacts the pace at which investigation can be completed,” the senior officer said, adding that they are currently focusing on finishing the backlog, and that the numbers for the next year should reflect that.

Cyber expert Vijay Mukhi said that many efforts were made seeking the setting up of special courts to hear cases of cyber crime, as the type of evidence in such cases is different from those in other cases. “The need of the hour is to have a specially-designated court to hear matters of cyber crime with trained judicial officers at the helm. Till that is not done, the rate of justice delivery is likely to remain the same,” Mukhi said.

mohamed.thaver@expressindia.com