Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the Council on Thursday said that a ₹900 crore world-class cyber crime lab would be set up in Navi Mumbai. Anant Gadgil (Congress) had raised a question on the number of cyber crimes, including online stalking of women, and the State’s competence in handling such cases.
In his written response, Mr. Deshmukh said 3,511 cyber crimes were registered in the State in 2018, and the figure stood at 4,822 last year. In the past five years, 16,512 cases were registered and 4,530 of them have been cracked so far. There were 867 cases of online harassment of women in 2018 and 799 in 2019. He said 550 police officers are handling the cases at 43 cyber police stations, and there is an independent cyber police station at BKC.
In his reply, Mr. Deshmukh mentioned Jamtara, a town in Jharkhand known for bank frauds on which a Netflix series is based. “Banks should be vigilant about cyber crime and have their own systems in place,” he said. Mr. Deshmukh also said CCTV cameras will be installed in every jail in the State in the next six months. He was responding to a query raised by Ramhari Rupanvar (Congress) on the unlawful supply of items from outside to prison inmates. Mr. Deshmukh said measures such as frisking of visitors, patrolling and inspection of vehicles entering the prison premises have been put in place.
When Jayant Patil (Peasants and Workers Party) said inmates even have access to movie tickets, Mr. Deshmukh said CCTV cameras will be installed in all jails in six months. He said, “We are installing CCTV cameras in every jail to ensure that there are no blind spots. The project will cost ₹90 crore. A detailed project report has been prepared.”