Jaipur: Amidst the rapidly increasing cyber crime across the country, Mewat region of Rajasthan was developing as its new hub, but here Rajasthan Police has achieved good success in controlling it by taking direct action against cyber criminals. Operation Anti-Virus was launched by the police here, through which the police managed to reduce the incidents of cyber crime by 70 percent in just five months.
Inspector General of Bharatpur Range, Rahul Prakash, who carried out this Operation Anti-Virus while talking to FPJ said that the biggest challenge in cases of cyber crime is lodging of FIR. “Thousands of complaints are filed, but the number of FIR is very low as the nature of crime is different. The criminal sitting in one state commits the crime in some other state so registering an FIR is not easy,” said Rahul Prakash.
The report on Cyber Crime prepared by Rahul Prakash shows that between January 1 and August 31 this year, 10 lakh 76 thousand 242 complaints were registered across the country, but only 31663 FIRs were registered.
Direct action yields results
Looking at this under Operation Anti-Virus the police started direct action by identifying the criminal with the help of Pratibimb, a Geographic Information System (GIS) based software created by Ministry of Home Affairs that helps police to map and track the locations of active mobile numbers which are used for criminal activities.
Rahul Prakash said that direct action as the best way out to crackdown on Cyber Criminals, and it gave good results In December 2023, there were 5201 suspects from Mewat region on the Central Government's Pratibimb portal, which reduced to 2063 in August. During this period, we arrested 797 cyber criminals.
The course of action
Previous strategy in Mewat was to block sim & IMEI used by the cyber criminals & assist the police teams coming from other states or districts.
▪ Operation anti-virus started with a simple idea of proactive arrests of culprits residing in the jurisdiction in place of Blocking their SIM/IMEIs.
▪ So, the police focused on arresting the criminals and started filling the FIR in session trails section.
▪ Seizer of their cars & property as case property in place of 102 Crpc
▪ Strong Opposition of Bail based on data, facts, and logic.
▪ Stern legal action against those, who all attacked on police.
▪ Demolition of illegal construction of cyber criminal.
Brief interview with Rahul Prakash
Q-How did these people become part of such crimes?
A-There is already a big business of fraud going on here which is called Tatlobaji. It has now changed into cyber crime. In fact, now most of the criminals are shifting to Cyber Crime as the risk is less, and the return is more in it.
Q- The people are not very educated here, yet how could they commit technology-based fraud.
A-Its technique is not very difficult. Anyone who knows how to use WhatsApp can do this. It is a technique that can be understood in a day.
Q-Who trains them?
A-There is peer group training. Initially, people came to learn from Delhi, Jharkhand etc. Now they train others.
Q-How do they come up with a new idea every time?
A-In fact, now everything has become online and this has made things easier for them. Consequently, they keep getting new ideas and since online operations need of the hour, some day, or the other anyone can be trapped.
Q- is direct action a sustainable option, or we need something else
A- Direct action helped us a lot, and we are advising it other states as well, but it cannot last long. Ultimately, we need to work on making the verification process more secure. The ultimate solution will come from awareness and technology only.