In recent days, there is an increasing awareness in the public about Cyber
Crimes. The Indian law on Cyber Crimes was passed more than three years ago
when Information Technology Act 2000 was passed. The law enforcement agencies
in many cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi etc have solved many
cases and brought culprits to book.
However, victims of Cyber Crimes continue to be confronted with the doubt from
time to time whether they should approach the Police when a crime is
committed. Earlier the excuse was that Police were not capable of solving
Cyber Crimes and why take the trouble. This no longer holds true. Now the
Police have shown that they can be trusted with solving at least some of the
crimes if not all. It is therefore time for the public to start trusting the
Police and come up with their complaints.
While the concern of a Citizen in being apprehensive of stepping into a Police
Station is often driven by the image of the Police as we see on the TV serials
or the Cinema, the truth is often that the Police personnel, particularly the
senior persons are very cooperative when approached for help. In particular,
the Cyber Crime Cells which often are centralized units manned by specially
trained persons of the DSP cadre and above are conscious of their
responsibilities and go to great lengths at helping the complainants.
Simultaneously, it is necessary to point out the risks that the victim bears
if he or she chooses to ignore an attempted Cyber Crime because of the
hesitation in approaching the Police.
Some of the crimes that we see today are falling into the category of
"harassment of women" through false rumors being circulated through e-mails or
message boards. The offended women often feels embarrassed to approach the
Police and afraid of the consequences to her family life if Police visit their
house for enquiry. However, it is necessary for the victims to think if they
would be better off by ignoring the offending e-mail. If it is a teen age
prank of a college student, one can perhaps say that ignoring the offensive
act may be a solution. But this is likely to embolden the culprit who may
engage in far more serious character assassination in the future days.
Yet another problem which public should be aware of is that public message
boards such as yahoo and some others are available for search engines and an
offensive message which is found in a message board can be picked up by a
search engine several years later in a search under the person's name. In case
of married women this could perhaps be held as an evidence for claiming a
divorce and for blackmail.
In case of any defamatory message being posted on the message board accessible
to the public it is essential for the victim to clear his/her image by
lodging a complaint and based on the same serve a notice to the message board
administrator to remove the offending message.
Similarly, in the Corporate circles, non filing of complaints in cases of
hacking or data theft etc would amount to hiding a criminal act. In as much as
the criminal gets emboldened in the process, the laxity on the part of the
Company is an action against the society and deserves to be condemned.
In case such a Company comes up with a Complaint some time later, it is also
possible that the lack of action against an earlier offence could be
considered as an act of "Negligence" making the officials responsible for the
security breach.
Corporates who hide any corruption complaints circulated through e-mails also
face the prospect of accepting the charge if they are not prepared to contest.
It is therefore necessary for any victim to lodge a complaint with the Police
as soon an offence is observed.
In cases where the victim does not want any further action, perhaps there
should be a means of registering the incident without pressing for further
action, though the procedures at present may not permit it.
The public may also remember that in case of many of the offences (Sec 43 of
ITA-2000) the process of proceeding for a financial compensation is simplified
with the adjudication process.
Hence there is no reason why there should be any hesitancy to approach the
Cyber Crime Police in case of need.
[For addresses and contact particulars of Cyber
Crime Police Stations, click here]
Naavi
March 16, 2004
