Cyber crime, cops and the law
Challenges faced by police
Talking to BusinessLine, Balsingh Rajput, Superintendent of Police (SP), Cyber Crime, Maharashtra, says cyber crimes against children and women account for about 30 per cent and are growing at 100 per cent every year.
Rajput, who heads the overall execution of Maharashtra government’s cyber security project, says that of late people have started reporting such crimes; In most case, the accused is known to the victim. Cases of cyber crimes have increased in the last five years, he adds. Significantly, the Centre has been focussing, during this period, on improving internet penetration in the country.
“The nature of crime (against children) remains the same, but the way has changed. Offenders are now using technology to get close to children. From rapes to child trafficking to selling contraband (drugs) near schools and colleges, these predators befriend their targets mostly on social media,” points out Rajput. Most cases go undetected as multinational internet giants and social media companies refuse to share information with the police.
Rajput says the Mumbai police busted a secret group, operating out of Mira Road, for circulating images, pictures, location and information about children for child trafficking and pornography.
“They used to share and sell pictures of child rape and sodomy through apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc, and used to make money out of it. In this case, one of the gang members turned informer and we were able to arrest most of the members,” he recalls.
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