If you are in Bihar and you become a victim of cyber crime, there are chances that the police will file a FIR. But if the same happens in Gujarat, chances are less. This sounds surprising but only 0.8% of the 1.59 lakh cyber crime related applications in Gujarat are converted into FIRs. Gujarat lags behind miserably in this segment as the national ratio is 1.9%
In all, the national ratio of applications-to-FIR is 1.9% — as many as 43,022 FIRs were filed across the country based on 22.57 lakh applications. It has emerged that Gujarat’s applications-to-FIR ratio is less than half at 0.8%. The state police recorded only 1,233 FIRs out of the 1.59 lakh applications between January 1, 2020, and May 15, 2023. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data reveals that Gujarat was among the nine states that recorded more than 1 lakh applications related to cybercrime during this period.
According to a daily, Gujarat records 5,585 cyber-crime related complaints per month on average, 186 applications per day and an average of one application every 7.5 minutes.
The data came to light, thanks to an initiative by Jeetendra Ghadge, a Girgaon-based activist, who filed an RTI application. Ghadge inquired about details on the percentage of applications related to cybercrime converted into FIRs by police.
The data also highlighted that 3,115 complaints from Gujarat were related to sexually explicit content.
Ajit Rajian, DCP (cyber) of Ahmedabad Police, informed the daily that FIR applications for cybercrime have risen in the last couple of years.
Senior police officials, the report added, said that chances of an FIR are reduced if the amount lost in cybercrime is small. They mentioned that such applications are combined when the same network is involved.
“The fraudsters are constantly changing their modus operandi, and thus it’s often the awareness that helps
prevent such crimes. Investigation in such cases is also different from the usual crimes where there is no jurisdiction – the person could be from the next area or can be operating from another country,” a senior told the daily.
Sunny Vaghela, CEO of a city-based cybersecurity firm, was quoted as saying that spammers have become increasingly active after the pandemic. “During and after lockdowns, we saw a steep rise in digital transactions. It also allowed spammers and online frauds to fleece people who were not digitally savvy.
The scams ranging from fraud calls to get bank details to sextortion, cryptocurrency purchase and bank verification saw a major rise in 2021 and 2022. Perhaps the data reflects that rise.”
Also Read: HM Amit Shah To Inaugurate India’s First Cooperative-Run Sainik School In Gujarat Today
