UP to set up cyber labs to crack cases

The state government has planned to have a cyber forensic laboratory in each divisional headquarters to check cyber crime cases. At present, there are only two such labs in the state - Lucknow and Agra. Darpan Singh reports.

The state government has planned to have a cyber forensic laboratory in each divisional headquarters to check cyber crime cases. At present, there are only two such labs in the state - Lucknow and Agra.

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Once the new plan is implemented, Meerut, along with the other 17 divisional headquarters, will get a lab. This will be a boon for the police in Noida and Greater Noida, which have for long been taking help of the labs in Agra and Lucknow. These two labs are already understaffed.

A makeshift cyber crime cell has been formed in Noida. A full-fledged cyber crime police station has also been proposed. But these cannot serve the purpose of a lab.

The Noida police only have a computer and a voice logger. The new team has had success, but because of the presence hundreds of IT companies and technical institutions where the internet is a major tool for financial transactions and exchange of information, a full-fledged lab in the vicinity is long overdue.

"In case of threat or obscene e-mails, the police need to track the internet protocol address. A forensic duplicator tracks the hard disk used and copies the data. But you need a laboratory to analyse the evidence and prove the charges,"said a police officer.