Mumbai to have three more cyber crime investigation cells

Mumbai: With cyber crime emerging as a big challenge for the law enforcement agencies, Maharashtra government has decided to set up three more Cyber Crime Investigation Cells in the city to effectively tackle and address probe needs of online space.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadvanis has recently given a nod for establishment of three more cells in the city limits, police said.

Currently, Mumbai police have a cyber crime investigation cell which was established in December 2000 at its headquarters in south Mumbai. Maharashtra's first full-fledged Cyber Crime Police Station had been set up in suburban Bandra in 2009.

Three senior police inspectors, 15 inspectors, 30 assistant police inspectors/sub inspectors and 60 constables will be deployed in the proposed cyber crime cells.

"Recently, the Chief Minister had chaired a meeting with senior police officials, during which he granted in-principle approval for setting up these units," Deputy Police Commissioner Dhananjay Kulkarni said today.

During the meeting, Fadnavis also gave his nod to design and create a set-up on the lines of the central Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), which has expert groups that handle computer security incidents.

It has also been decided that 1,000 policemen from 93 police stations would be trained on how to deal with cyber crimes.

The government has also emphasised on creating public awareness about safety measures people should be kept in mind while on the cyberspace and how dearly a slight ignorance and mistake would cost the users.

"Going by the growing economy, huge IT industry, increasing rollout of e-Governance and online applications and burgeoning tech-savvy generation of citizens, it has been found that the organised cyber criminals have been finding numerous platforms to lure and trap victims. And hence, online crimes are also on the surge. It will be good if we have dedicated personnel to deal with the menace," Kulkarni added.

As dimensions of security problem increased manifold in online space, police had launched Mumbai Cyber Lab (MCL) in 2004 in a bid to quickly scale up capacity to fight cyber crimes.

In addition to this, the lab has been training law enforcing agencies in cyber crime investigations and cyber forensics.