With cyber stalking fast emerging as a serious menace, India is slowly catching up
A shocking statistic reveals that even as the number of cyber crime complaints in the Capital more than doubled in just a year, the number of actual cases lodged were surprisingly low. While 956 complaints saw just one case being registered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch in 2015, in year 2016, as many as 2,316 complaints were received but only 10 cases were lodged.
"Character assassination is the main motive behind most cyber crimes against women," said Anyesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Cyber Crime Cell (EOW), Delhi. "Since most of these offenders are people under 25 years of age and are inexperienced criminals, they almost always leave a trail behind," he added.
With cyber stalking fast emerging as a serious menace, India is slowly catching up. In the first two months of 2017, as many as 517 such complaints were received and three cases were registered. The Crime Branch has been receiving, on an average, six complaints per day since 2016. Then there are cases that get resolved at the district level itself. In a recent such incident, an unknown person had been harassing a West Delhi resident by sending her obscene photographs on WhatsApp for over a month. He even tried to video call her and then threatened to throw acid on her, until the victim lodged an FIR on March 6.
"This man, who was married, found a spare SIM card and started contacting the girl," said IO Sanjay Bhatt. "He used this SIM card only to activate his WhatsApp account. We kept a watch and based on the IMEI location, we caught hold of him. The matter was resolved within 10 days of registration of the complaint," the Inspector added. The accused is out on bail at present, but is facing charges under 67, IT Act and 66, Cyber Act.
Police said in many cases of cyber stalking, the victims do not want to be identified. In one such case, victim's friend Ankit sent an email to the Crime Branch, informing them about a man who had been stalking his friend. He specifically mentioned that his friend wanted to "stay away from legal action and did not want her parents to be informed."
"In a lot of cases, victims come to us very late, when things have really got out of hand," an officer said.
In another such case, the victim received continuous messages from different numbers, including international chat cards, readily available on the internet for Rs 2,000. The accused, an IT engineer, had several devices and chat cards. A case was registered but the accused got bail within a few days.
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