Crime cell handles 25 cases, only two cases booked because of reluctance to file complaints.

Prassanakumar Keskar

Pune, May 30: PUNE�s growth as an IT hub has brought with it a new challenge in the form of cyber crime. Even as the city has become a happy hunting ground for infotech companies, a five-member computer-savvy team of Pune Police has been busy cracking cyber crimes. In less than a year since it was set up in July last year by former Pune police commissioner A N Roy, the cyber crime cell has handled 25 cases.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Jadhav, who heads the cyber crime cell, says most cases that they investigate pertain to cyber stalking, misuse of cyber identity of unsuspecting victims or receipt of obscene e-mails. However, with the IT boom there has been increasing number of hacking and data thefts in the software firms.


��We have received four-five such complaints in the last few months. However, after we track down the culprit, many companies refuse to lodge formal complaints. This happens especially when the hacker turns out to be an employee of the company,�� he says.

That is the reason that in spite of having investigated 25 cases only two cases have been filed. ��We begin investigations on the basis of a complaint and track down the culprit. However, if the culprit turns out to be an associate of the complainant, the complainant refuses to file a formal FIR (First Information Report). We are helpless,�� he says.

For Jadhav�s assistant Manjiri Kulkarni, it is the challenge of cracking through the hacker�s fortress and finding the hacker that keeps her glued to the screen. ��The hackers are more brilliant and tracking them down needs more efforts. We have solved four-five such cases in less than an year,�� she says.

Kulkarni still recalls the laborious process that they had to go through before nabbing a man from Mumbai who hacked the ICICI Bank�s system and transferred money from other accounts. The man was caught in Mumbai and it was found that he had used cyber cafes to hack into the bank�s system.

Nabbing culprits who operate from cyber cafes is the biggest challenge for these cyber cops. ��Despite our repeated appeals, netcafe owners do not maintain logs of people working on computers. This makes it difficult for us to track down the culprits. In such cases, we take the help of local police, who keep vigil at the cyber cafe and nab the culprit,�� she says.

However, Kulkarni says cases like obscene e-mails are easier to investigate as it all depends on finding out the IP (Internet Protocol) address, which helps in tracing the culprit.

Besides Jadhav and Kulkarni, the cell has three constables �� all of whom have done basic computer courses and have got training in cyber crime investigation from the Asian School of Cyber Law.

You can view the original article here...
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=86130