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The Uttar Pradesh government has set up 16 dedicated cyber police stations to check the growing instances of e-commerce frauds in the state. Two cyber police stations were already operational in Lucknow and Noida and the state has now set up similar units in each of the 16 remaining police ranges, thus taking the tally to 18 in the state.
The state cabinet in February this year had approved the proposal to establish cyber crime police stations at 16 zonal headquarters, including Bareilly, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Kanpur, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Gorakhpur, Devipatan, Basti, Varanasi, Azamgarh, Mirzapur and Ayodhya. The state government will be spending Rs 111 crore on providing all infrastructure to the 16 new police stations.
According to official sources, the cyber criminals have adopted innovative tactics to defraud gullible citizens during the current COVID-19 pandemic in the name of PM Cares fund, social security schemes, e-commerce, online booking of goods and services etc. The state government has issued an advisory to the officials concerned to check the growing instances of cyber crimes and it has helped in controlling such frauds to a large extent.
Apart from the cyber police stations, the UP Police have also constituted special cyber cells at 149 police stations in 75 districts to deal with cases of cyber crimes and misuse of social media. These cells have been equipped with modern surveillance and investigation gadgets.
Currently, these cyber cells have 1,717 police inspectors, 1,717 sub-inspectors, 3,458 constables apart from 279 support staff, headed by ADG (cyber crime).
For administrative purposes, the eight zones in UP — Lucknow, Bareilly, Meerut, Agra, Kanpur, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Varanasi and Gorakhpur — have been further divided into 18 police ranges, each headed by an IG or DIG rank officer.
The proliferation of internet has widened the scope of cyber crimes, which necessitates the expansion of the state cyber crime wing.