Lok Sabha Question No. 636 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-06
Subject: Illegal Websites
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Sanjay Bhatia, P. C. Mohan, Ravi Kishan Shukla, Sunil Kumar Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav, Aparajita Sarangi, L.S. Tejasvi Surya, Pradeep Kumar Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 636

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 6 TH  FEBRUARY 2024/ MAGHA 17, 1945 (SAKA)

## ILLEGAL WEBSITES

636.        SHRI SANJAY BHATIA: SHRI P.C. MOHAN: SHRI RAVI KISHAN: SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINGH: SHRI RAM KRIPAL YADAV: SHRIMATI APARAJITA SARANGI: SHRI L.S. TEJASVI SURYA: SHRI PRADEEP KUMAR SINGH:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state :

(a)  whether  the  Government has taken any steps to curb the menace of illegal websites which promotes investment and other types of scams;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c)  whether  the  Government  is  planning  to  bring  any  legislation  to specifically address the concern of online frauds and scams or is there any provision under any legislation already to penalise the offenders;

(d) if so, the details thereof;

(e)  the  number  of  complaints  registered  on  the  1930  Cyber  Crime  Portal during the last one year, State-wise; and

(f) the number of complaints resolved and the number of accounts and the amount of fraudulent transactions saved?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI AJAY KUMAR MISHRA)

(a) to (f): 'Police' and 'Public Order' are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule  of  the  Constitution  of  India.  The  States/UTs  are  primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes  including  cyber  crime  through  their  Law  Enforcement  Agencies (LEAs). The Central Government  supplements  the initiatives of the States/UTs  through  advisories  and  financial  assistance  under  various schemes  for  their  capacity  building  of  their  LEAs.  To  strengthen  the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include the following:

- i. The  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  set  up  the  'Indian  Cyber  Crime Coordination Centre' (I4C) to deal with all types of cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
- ii. Seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams (JCCTs) have been constituted for Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Vishakhapatnam, and Guwahati under I4C covering the whole country based  upon  cyber  crime  hotspots/  areas  having  multi  jurisdictional issues by on boarding States/UTs to enhance the coordination framework  among  the  Law  Enforcement  Agencies  of  the  States/UTs. Seven workshops were organized for JCCTs at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati,  Vishakhapatnam,  Lucknow,  Ranchi and Chandigarh in 2023.

- iii. The state of the art 'National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation)' has been established, as a part of the I4C, at New Delhi to provide early stage  cyber  forensic  assistance  to  Investigating  Officers  (IOs)  of State/UT Police.So far, National Cyber Forensics Laboratory (Investigation) have provided its services to State LEAs in around 9,000 cyber  forensics  like  mobile  forensics,  memory  forensics,  Call  Data Record  (CDR)  Analysis,  etc.  to  help  them  in  investigation  of  cases pertaining to cyber crimes.
- iv. The  'National  Cyber  Crime  Reporting  Portal'  (https://cybercrime.gov.in) has  been  launched,  as  a  part  of  the  I4C,  to  enable  public  to  report incidents pertaining to all types of cyber crimes, with special focus on cyber  crimes  against  women  and  children.  Cyber  crime  incidents reported  on  this  portal,  their  conversion  into  FIRs  and  subsequent action thereon are handled by the State/UT Law Enforcement Agencies concerned as per the provisions of the law.
- v. The 'Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System', under  I4C,  has  been  launched  for  immediate  reporting  of  financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters. Since inception of  Citizen  Financial  Cyber  Fraud  Reporting  and  Management  System, more  than  Rs.  1200  Crore  have  been  saved  in  more  than  4.7  lakh complaints. A toll-free Helpline number '1930' has been operationalized to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints. The State/UT wise

- details of Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting Management System during the period 1.1.2023 to 31.12.2023 are at the Annexure.
- vi. The  Massive  Open  Online  Courses  (MOOC)  platform,  namely  'CyTrain' portal  has  been  developed  under  I4C,  for  capacity  building  of  police officers/judicial  officers  through  online  course  on  critical  aspects  of cyber crime investigation, forensics, prosecution etc. along with certification.  More  than  76,000  Police  Officers  from  States/UTs  are registered and more than 53,000 Certificates issued through the portal.
- vii. Till date more than 3.2 lakhs SIM cards and 49,000 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Government of India.
- viii. I4C  has  imparted  cyber  hygiene  training  to  6,000  officials  of  various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India.
- ix. I4C  has  imparted  cyber  hygiene  training  to  more  than  23,000  NCC cadets.
- x. The Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  provided  financial  assistance  to  the tune  of  Rs.  122.24  crores  under  the  'Cyber  Crime  Prevention  against Women  and  Children  (CCPWC)'  Scheme,  to  the  States/UTs  for  their capacity  building  such  as  setting  up  of  cyber  forensic-cum-training laboratories,  hiring  of  junior  cyber  consultants  and  training  of  LEAs' personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers. So far, cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 33 States/UTs.  So  far,  more  than  24,600  LEA personnel, judicial officers

and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.

- xi. National  Cyber  Forensic  Laboratory  (Evidence)  has  been  set  up  at Hyderabad.  Establishment  of  this  laboratory  provides  the  necessary forensic support in cases of evidence related to cyber crime, preserving the evidence and its analysis in line with the provisions of IT Act and Evidence Act; and reduced turnaround time.
- xii. To  spread  awareness  on  cyber  crime,  the  Central  Government  has taken  steps  which,  inter-alia,  include;  dissemination  of  messages through  SMS,  I4C  social media  account  i.e. X (formerly Twitter) (@Cyberdost), Facebook(CyberDostI4C), Instagram (cyberdostI4C), Telegram(cyberdosti4c), Radio campaign, engaged MyGov for publicity in  multiple  mediums,  organizing  Cyber Safety and Security Awareness weeks  in  association  with  States/UTs,  publishing  of  Handbook  for Adolescents/Students, etc. The States/UTs have also been requested to carry out publicity to create mass awareness.

The  Law  Enforcement  Agencies  utilize  the  provisions  of  the  Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and other extant laws to deal with cyber crimes.

****

## State/UT wise details of Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting Management System during the period 1.1.2023 to 31.12.2023.

| Sl. No.   | States/UTs                           | Nos. of Complaint Reported   | Nos. of Complaints (Put on Hold)   | Lien Amount (Rs in Lakhs)   |
|-----------|--------------------------------------|------------------------------|------------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| 1         | Andaman & Nicobar                    | 526                          | 161                                | 26.46                       |
| 2         | Andhra Pradesh                       | 33505                        | 9580                               | 4664.14                     |
| 3         | Arunachal Pradesh                    | 470                          | 127                                | 34.39                       |
| 4         | Assam                                | 7621                         | 2163                               | 451.61                      |
| 5         | Bihar                                | 42029                        | 11533                              | 2779.41                     |
| 6         | Chandigarh                           | 3601                         | 1058                               | 296.67                      |
| 7         | Chhattisgarh                         | 18147                        | 5056                               | 898.41                      |
| 8         | Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu | 412                          | 105                                | 40.88                       |
| 9         | Delhi                                | 58745                        | 13674                              | 3425.03                     |
| 10        | Goa                                  | 1788                         | 450                                | 153.22                      |
| 11        | Gujarat                              | 121701                       | 49220                              | 15690.9                     |
| 12        | Haryana                              | 76736                        | 21178                              | 4653.4                      |
| 13        | Himachal Pradesh                     | 5268                         | 1502                               | 370.78                      |
| 14        | Jammu & Kashmir                      | 1046                         | 253                                | 62.55                       |
| 15        | Jharkhand                            | 10039                        | 2822                               | 556.38                      |
| 16        | Karnataka                            | 64301                        | 18989                              | 7315.52                     |
| 17        | Kerala                               | 23757                        | 8559                               | 3647.83                     |
| 18        | Ladakh                               | 162                          | 41                                 | 10.03                       |
| 19        | Lakshadweep                          | 29                           | 6                                  | 0.51                        |
| 20        | Madhya Pradesh                       | 37435                        | 9336                               | 1462.33                     |
| 21        | Maharashtra                          | 125153                       | 32050                              | 10308.47                    |
| 22        | Manipur                              | 339                          | 108                                | 66.94                       |
| 23        | Meghalaya                            | 654                          | 252                                | 46.71                       |
| 24        | Mizoram                              | 239                          | 75                                 | 35.44                       |
| 25        | Nagaland                             | 224                          | 73                                 | 18.09                       |
| 26        | Odisha                               | 16869                        | 5187                               | 1049.34                     |
| 27        | Puducherry                           | 1953                         | 568                                | 143.38                      |
| 28        | Punjab                               | 19252                        | 4923                               | 1332.66                     |
| 29        | Rajasthan                            | 77769                        | 20899                              | 3934.82                     |
| 30        | Sikkim                               | 292                          | 65                                 | 18.01                       |
| 31        | Tamil Nadu                           | 59547                        | 17941                              | 6980.72                     |
| 32        | Telangana                            | 71425                        | 26148                              | 13137.94                    |
| 33        | Tripura                              | 1913                         | 488                                | 84.82                       |
| 34        | Uttarakhand                          | 17958                        | 4813                               | 708.94                      |
| 35        | Uttar Pradesh                        | 197546                       | 44089                              | 5906.86                     |
| 36        | West Bengal                          | 29804                        | 6307                               | 1845.97                     |
| Total     | Total                                | 11,28,255                    | 3,19,799                           | 921,59.56                   |