With nearly 10,000 cybercrime cases being recorded in 2022, Bengaluru secures top spot among 19 metropolitan cities

These 19 cities have reported 24,420 cybercrime cases in 2022 of which, Karnataka reported 12,556 cybercrime cases or 40 per cent of the total cases across the metropolitan cities.

In Bengaluru, as many as 10,555 cybercrime cases were registered in 2019 with the police solving only 2,059 of these cases (19 per cent). In 2020, 8,892 cybercrime cases were registered and 3,001 were solved (30 per cent). In 2021, 6,423 cases were registered and of them, 1,902 were solved (29 per cent). In 2022, 9,940 cases were reported but the police managed to solve just 1,176 cases (11 per cent).

In the last five years, Bengaluru has reported 41,063 cybercrime cases and in 2022, there was not even a single case where the accused was convicted. Interestingly, among the cities, only Hyderabad police have managed to get two convictions. In eight cases, the court acquitted the cybercrime suspects.

In Bengaluru, the percentage of cases that reach the chargesheet level remained only at 22.6 per cent.

When The Indian Express contacted city police commissioner B Dayananda, he was not available for a comment.

However, a senior police officer said that the staff still need a lot of expertise to handle cybercrime cases.

“We have a better reporting mechanism than any other city in the country and with more than a crore population, the numbers don’t surprise me. Secondly, as these crimes take place in the virtual world, it is very hard to track the criminals and only awareness can prevent it. Many of the crimes reported in Bengaluru originated from other states and other countries as well. It is also true that our staff are yet to get the expertise to collect evidence in cybercrimes cases,” the officer said.

After establishing CEN (cybercrime, Economic offence and Narcotics) police stations at division levels, the city police commissioner has directed to register cybercrime cases in law and order police stations as well. “The personnel at these police stations are getting used to the evolving cybercrimes, detections and tools used,” the senior officer added.

It may be recalled that in October, Dayananda had revealed that in the last nine months (1 January, 2023 to 20 September, 2023) 12,615 cybercrimes have been reported in which victims have lost Rs 4,70,53,92,258 and the police have managed to recover Rs 28.4 crore and returned more than Rs 27.6 crore to the complainants. The police also managed to freeze over Rs 201 crore of the total lost amount.

Number of cybercrimes reported in Bengaluru

2018: 5,253

2019: 10,555

2020: 8,892

2021: 6,423

2022: 9,940

Major cybercrimes reported in Bengaluru

Fraud: 9,289

Extortion: 364

Sexual exploitation: 224

Cases pending from previous years: 12,153

Cases being investigated: 22,093

Cases transferred to other states or agencies: 28

Cases true but insufficient evidence or untraced or no clue: 10,395

Cases chargesheeted in 2022: 3,057

Chargesheet rating: 22.6%

Convictions: 0

Acquittals: 8