9k-10k cases pending at cyber crime cell; lack of response from service providers leading to delay, say police

The cyber police have returned Rs 8.5 crore to the complainants in around 650 cases till July this year. However, more than double the complainants have lost their money.

As many as 9,000-10,000 cases are pending at the cyber-crime cell of the Pune police till September, according to Sambhaji Kadam, deputy commissioner of police, cyber-crime and economic offence wing (EOW).

Of 1,175 requests made to 11 service providers in 2019, 301 were rejected, and 419 were provided; rest remained unanswered. (Getty Images/iStockphoto/ Representative photo)

Lack of response from banks, social media, Internet and telecom service providers have contributed to the mounting cases pending resolution at the cyber-crime cell, say officials.

The cyber police have returned Rs 8.5 crore to the complainants in around 650 cases till July this year. However, more than double the complainants have lost their money. There are various reasons for the loss of this money, including people tricked into sharing information willingly. However, a major contributor is the lack of response from companies.

Of 1,175 requests made to 11 service providers in 2019, 301 were rejected, and 419 were provided; rest remained unanswered.

In 2020, so far, 1694 requests have been made to these companies. Of these 1,694 requests, 465 have been declined, 905 have been accepted and the rest remained unanswered.

“There are times when we have sent 15-16 reminders for particular information and it still remains unanswered. This needs government intervention to make these companies respond on time,” said Kadam.

The police either write to the nodal officers of the concerned or to the Computer Emergency Response Team, India (CERTIn) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. However, their responses are not always met with.

“For all such companies, there is a single point of contact called the nodal officer who collects and provides this information sought by the police,” aid Sandip Gadiya, a cyber security expert.

“There are multiple reasons why there is no response: the letter is not clear describing crime and sections invoked. In some cases, if the account is accessed from outside the country, the nodal officers cannot provide the information. In yet another type of cases, the nodal officers check if the quoted sections are rightly invoked. There is also the reason of servers of the company being located outside of India,” he said.

“The problem is that it is as it is difficult to trace the money. Once it is traced, finding the name on the account and the original owner is another challenge. Also, these crimes are often committed from outside the jurisdiction of the local police. Amid these problems, it should be noted that it is binding for these companies to share this information. I will have to study about the legal recourse to this,” said advocate Vishal Muralikar who works as a public prosecutor in the local court where cyber-crime cases are heard.

“There are other legal recourse that can be used by the police or the complainants themselves. However, all the processes culminate into the co-ordination between tech companies and the police,” he said.