Karnataka to have to more cyber police stations

With the number of Information Technology(IT) offences recording an increase in the last fewyears, the Karnataka Government is planning to set upmore cyber police stations across the state.

After registering 48 cases during the year 2005, thelone cyber police station in Bangalore had alreadybooked 14 cases during the first four months of 2006.“Initially cases pertaining to obscene mails werereported, but now it is related to intellectualproperty rights and hacking. The cyber crime rateappears to be only increasing”, noted Director Generalof Police (Corps of Detective) K R Srinivasan.

Speaking at the Telecommunication Day in Bangalore,Srinivasan said cyber crime had become a menace to thesociety and cases like ATM fraud and misuse of creditcards were increasing gradually.He said new cyber crime police stations will be set upin regional headquarters like Mysore, Gulbarga,Mangalore and Belgaum to grapple with the growingincidence of cyber offences in Karnataka.

However, a majority of cyber crimes are reported fromBangalore as it is the IT hub of the State. The cyberpolice station has been functioning in Bangalore since1999 and the first judgement on cyber crime will bedelivered in a couple of days time, he said.He regretted that the law courts were notwell-equipped to deal with cyber crime cases. “Evenadvocates are not aware of cyber laws”, he added. TheIT Act has made tampering of source codes, hacking andpornography as punishable offences.