Lok Sabha Question No. 617 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-06
Subject: Policies to tackle Cyber Crimes
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Sajda Ahmed

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 617

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

POLICIES TO TACKLE CYBER CRIMES

617.       SHRIMATI SAJDA AHMED:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state :

(a)  the  details  of  the  policies  and  programmes  implemented  by  the Government to prevent the increasing occurrence of cyber crime;

(b) whether the Government is aware that illegal lending applications and fake  customer  care  numbers  are  being  utilized  by  scammers  for  cyber fraud, and if so, the details thereof;

- (c) the measures  that the Government  has  taken to address and counteract the use of illegal lending apps and fake customer care numbers in cyber fraud;
- (d) the details and the number of cases registered for impersonation and sextortion  and  cyber  threat  to  the  Government  organizations  across  the country;
- (e)  whether  the  Government  have  any  plan  to  introduce  legislation specifically to address digital crime, considering the increasing prevalence of cyber threats; and

(f) if so, the details thereof?

## 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.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and publishes the statistical  data  on  crimes  in  its  publication  'Crime  in  India'.  The  latest published  report  is  for  the  year  2022.  Crime  Head-wise  details  of  cases registered, persons arrested, persons charge-sheeted and persons convicted under cyber crimes (involving communication  devices as medium/target)  during  2022  are  at  the  Annexure.  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  '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. So far, financial amount of 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.

- 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.

****

| S l.   | Crime Head                                                                     | 2022   | 2022   | 2022   | 2022   | 2022   | 2022   |
|--------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| no     |                                                                                | CR     | CCS    | CON    | PAR    | PCS    | PCV    |
| 1      | Tampering computer source documents                                            | 65     | 61     | 1      | 83     | 162    | 1      |
| 2      | Computer Related Offences                                                      | 23894  | 7204   | 378    | 7846   | 9236   | 517    |
| 3      | Cyber Terrorism                                                                | 12     | 5      | 0      | 6      | 6      | 0      |
| 4      | Publication/transmission of obscene / sexually explicit act in electronic form | 6896   | 3600   | 165    | 4783   | 4577   | 217    |
| 5      | Interception or Monitoring or decryption of Information                        | 1      | 1      | 0      | 1      | 1      | 0      |
| 6      | Un-authorized access/attempt to access to protected computer system            | 1      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| 7      | Abetment to Commit Offences                                                    | 4      | 1      | 0      | 1      | 1      | 0      |
| 8      | Attempt to Commit Offences                                                     | 18     | 6      | 0      | 14     | 13     | 0      |
| 9      | Other Sections of IT Act                                                       | 1017   | 525    | 23     | 973    | 810    | 58     |
| A      | Total Offences under I.T. Act                                                  | 31908  | 11403  | 567    | 13707  | 14806  | 793    |
| 10     | Abetment of Suicide (Online)                                                   | 24     | 7      | 0      | 26     | 10     | 0      |
| 11     | Cyber Stalking/Bullying of Women/Children                                      | 1471   | 841    | 17     | 1012   | 1017   | 19     |
| 12     | Data theft                                                                     | 97     | 38     | 4      | 56     | 50     | 4      |
| 13     | Fraud                                                                          | 17470  | 3391   | 129    | 4778   | 5213   | 160    |
| 14     | Cheating                                                                       | 10509  | 1290   | 64     | 3161   | 2241   | 70     |
| 15     | Forgery                                                                        | 224    | 134    | 78     | 252    | 258    | 80     |
| 16     | Defamation/Morphing                                                            | 61     | 26     | 0      | 43     | 31     | 0      |
| 17     | Fake Profile                                                                   | 157    | 42     | 0      | 50     | 47     | 0      |
| 18     | Counterfeiting                                                                 | 2      | 1      | 0      | 3      | 1      | 0      |
| 19     | Cyber Blackmailing/Threatening                                                 | 696    | 215    | 4      | 402    | 300    | 4      |
| 20     | Fake News on Social Media                                                      | 230    | 128    | 31     | 179    | 190    | 31     |
| 21     | Other Offences                                                                 | 2857   | 1286   | 220    | 1892   | 1875   | 236    |
| B      | Total Offences under IPC                                                       | 33798  | 7399   | 547    | 11854  | 11233  | 604    |
| 22     | Gambling Act (Online Gambling)                                                 | 37     | 29     | 2      | 78     | 71     | 7      |
| 23     | Lotteries Act (Online Lotteries)                                               | 6      | 3      | 0      | 21     | 19     | 0      |
| 24     | Copy Right Act                                                                 | 27     | 11     | 0      | 9      | 15     | 0      |
| 25     | Trade Marks Act                                                                | 14     | 9      | 0      | 9      | 9      | 0      |
| 26     | Other SLL Crimes                                                               | 103    | 71     | 2      | 121    | 108    | 3      |
| C      | Total Offences under SLL                                                       | 187    | 123    | 4      | 238    | 222    | 10     |
|        | Total Cyber Crimes (A+B+C)                                                     | 65893  | 18925  | 1118   | 25799  | 26261  | 1407   |