India has tried many things to decrease cyber crime. In May of 2000, the Parliament of India passed a law called The Information Technology Act 2000 was passed by the Parliament of India in May 2000. Its goal was to decrease cyber crimes and start setting up laws to allow e-commerce (where many)ey could be exchanged electronically. However, Pavan Duggan, a lawyer with the Supreme Court of India and cyber law expert, complained that the IT act focused too much on promoting e-commerce and not enough on dealing with cyber crimes. Cyber crime cells have been set up in major cities. But Duggal said the problem is that most cases are never reported because people do not know their rights under Indian law.
In 2001, India and United States joined together in an Indian-US cyber security forum as part of a counter-terrorism dialogue. In 2006, India and the US agreed to have their law enforcement agencies work together more in fighting cyber crimes. They saw this as an important as part of counter-terrorism efforts.
In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met to discuss cyber security. Afterward, they held a press conference together. They said that because cyber security and cyber forensic research (like finding evidence in computers) are so important, India and the United States were also talking about a draft protocol on cyber security.
India has state laws that make it illegal for police to torture people. But these laws are not often obeyed. Torture is often used when people are arrested or jailed by the police. This torture is a major cause of deaths in police custody. The police often torture innocent people until they 'confess' (they say they did the crime). This false confession is then used to save important, rich people who have actually committed crimes. One major problem that keeps police violence possible is a lack of accountability (meaning no one gets in trouble if they torture a person), according to G.P. Joshi. Joshi runs the Indian branch of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi.
In 2006, the Supreme Court of India decided a case called "Prakash Singh vs. Union of India". In its decision, the Court ordered central and state governments to begin police reform. The Court had two goals with its decision. The first was to give tenure to police officers, and to make it simpler for police officers to get hired or transfer to a different area. The second was to increase police accountability.
In 2006, seven policemen were charge-sheeted (officially accused of having done a crime) for police misconduct, and eleven were convicted.
Criminals visit markets and other places that are popular with tourists, with the goal of committing crimes against foreigners (people from other countries). Westerners have become victims of robbery, rape, and other violent attacks.
Because foreigners often have more money than most people in India, they are often criminals' favorite target for robbery and other serious crimes.
In April 1999, a group of Indians made friends with Swaraj Damree, a tourist from Mauritius. The group later kidnapped Damree and held him captive for 25 days. They robbed him of cash worth $1,500 in U.S. dollars, and stole his traveller's cheques, wrist watch, gold chain, bracelet, two bags and suitcase. In 2000, two German tourists were shot in Himachal Pradesh. A few weeks later, two Spanish tourists were killed by robbers in the same state.
Many foreign tourists are victims of violent crime in Kolkata. In September 2006, criminals robbed the wallet of a British woman in Kolkata. The same month, a Japanese tourist was robbed on his way to Sudder Street. In October 2006, a foreigner was robbed during the day on Park Street.
Petty crime, like stealing people's wallets and bags, is common in India. Stealing valuable things from foreigners' luggage on trains and buses is also common. People traveling alone are especially likely to have their things stolen by pickpockets and purse snatchers, who usually work in crowded areas.
In India, stealing tourists' passports from their luggage on trains and buses is very common. Theft of U.S. passports happens often, especially in major tourist areas.
Criminals run many scams against tourists, especially in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The criminals usually pick younger tourists to try to scam. They tell the tourists that they can make a lot of money if they move gems or gold, or if they take expensive carpets back home in their luggage to avoid customs duties.
If a tourist agrees, the scam continues for a few days. Then a new scam artist offers to show the tourist interesting places in the area. The scammers also offer cheap places to stay and meals to the tourist. They do this so that the tourist ends up being with the scam artist all the time. The scam artist is then threatened and may be hurt, until he gives up his passport to the scammers.
In 2006, an American became victim of a scam at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. She lost $77 U.S. dollars.
Taxi drivers also run scams in India. These scams are run on tourists who do not know their way around India or Indian airports. Some taxi drivers will drive tourists around the whole airport, so they can charge a lot of money for the ride, when the part of the airport that the tourist wants to go to was actually very close by. In a report, the Overseas Security Advisory Council talked about taxi scams and how to avoid them.
There have been more and more rapes of tourists at popular tourist spots. In March 2006, Biti Mohanty, the son of a senior police official in Orissa, raped a German tourist in Alwar, Rajasthan. The next month, a Japanese woman was raped in Pushkar, Rajasthan. In June 2007, a South Korean tourist was raped near Manali. In September 2007, two Japanese women were gang-raped in Agra, a popular tourist spot in India where the Taj Mahal is located.
The Indian state of Rajasthan is a popular place among foreign tourists. One out of every three tourists that go to India visit this state. Rajasthan has been rattled by rape cases of foreign tourists. The Indian Bureau of Consular Affairs has warned women from the United States not to travel alone in India.
A report published by the National Crime Records Bureau compared crime rates from 1953 to 2006. The report found that:
In 2006, 51,02,460 cognizable crimes were committed. In India, cognizable crimes are serious crimes, where a police officer could make an arrest without needing a warrant first. Examples of cognizable crimes include rape, murder, and theft.
Among the cognizable crimes committed in 2006, there were 18,78,293 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 32,24,167 Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes. The IPC crime rate in 2006 was 167.7 compared to 165.3 in 2005, showing an increase of 1.5% in 2006 over 2005. SLL crime rate in 2006 was 287.9 compared to 290.5 in 2005, showing a decrease of 0.9% in 2006 over 2005.
SOURCE: National Crime Records Bureau
Different places in India have different amounts and types of crime. For example:
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