Kolkata: State govt to seek RBI, Sebi help to track scamsters

The state government will seek the help of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to add more muscle to the economic offence wing (EOW) and cyber crime cells (CCCs) of the state police, Kolkata Police and the different police commissionerates.

The state government will seek the help of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to add more muscle to the economic offence wing (EOW) and cyber crime cells (CCCs) of the state police, Kolkata Police and the different police commissionerates.

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The decision comes in the wake of the meltdown of the tainted Saradha Group and host of other chit fund concerns and shady operators dealing in ponzi schemes.

Sources in the state finance department said though the move had been initiated in the wake of the chit fund bust, the decision to strengthen the two agencies dealing has been fuelled by two objectives.

“The EOW needs to be strengthened so that it could track such concerns dealing in bogus schemes from advertisements coming out in different newspapers and take necessary action against them. The aim is to deal with such firms before they can dupe customers with the promise of high returns,” a senior finance department official said.

Although deemed a key agency to go after such scamming concerns, the motive behind lending more muscle to the cyber crime cells is essentially two-pronged. Since these concerns are known to use the online platform to flag or advertise their schemes, the cyber crime cells are expected to track such dubious operators on the web and alert the EOW.

“Another reason to fortify the cyber crime cells is that these operators are known to take the online route to transfer unauthorised deposits collected from investors. Hence, it’s incumbent on the cyber police to track where the deposits are being routed via the Internet,” a finance department official said.

He said the cyber sleuths need to have more teeth to go after those accused of such offences as credit card fraud, bogus debit card transactions and online share transactions among others.

It is learnt that a team of highly skilled and net-savvy sleuths would soon be deputed at the CCCs and EOW and the state government would rope in the fraud-monitoring cell of the RBI and SEBI for training them for the job. The state might even seek help of qualified private professionals to make the system robust and full proof.

The state will reportedly model the cyber crime tracking system on the lines of the Cyber Suraksha Cell in Gujarat, which was also set up with assistance from the SEBI and RBI.