Chandigarh Police to now get own cyber crime police station

The cyber crime police station will come up at Sector 17 where Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) works. Sources said that the cyber crime police station will work on the pattern of other police stations by having a station house officer (SHO), its independent police lockup, independent Moharrir Head Constable (MHC) who will be the incharge of malkhana where seized material as the case properties will kept. Indeed, the strength of the police station will be abundant to deal with the increasing pendency of police complaints related to cyber crimes.

“At present, we are not authorised to lodge FIRs independently. Our FIRs are registered in local police stations. Besides, when we submit a chargesheet against a criminal arrested for committing cyber crime, the signature of SHO of the local police station where FIR was registered is mandatory. After the independent police station, this will change,” SP (cyber) Ketan Bansal said.

“The CCIC is currently faces a staff crunch. The cell has around 68 police personnel and the cyber crime-related complaints are being received around 6,000 yearly. Our conviction ratio compared to the registration of FIRs is very low. We are sure once we get an independent police station, our performance will increase,” said a cyber cell personnel requesting anonymity.

Chandigarh is a member of Joint Cybercrime Coordination Team (JCCT) Group-5. Other states/UTs in the JCCT Group-5 include Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir.