Cybercrime conviction rate is Maharashtra's weak spot

Though Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of cybercrimes in India, its conviction rate is one of the poorest.

Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh registered 2,195 and 2,208 cases, respectively, in 2015. However, the former's conviction rate of 0.55% is far lower than the national average of 6.12% in 2015.

The other states that saw maximum cybercrimes have fared much better. UP has a conviction rate of 8.14%, Karnataka 1.13%, Rajasthan 3.92%, Telangana 18.38% and Andhra Pradesh 11.67%.

"It is one area where criminals are better-equipped, informed and intelligent than the police. It is a challenge to bridge the gap. We are trying to take help from various countries and experts but the challenge lies in equipping our own police. We are working on various short-term courses to provide training," said a senior officer with the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).

The number of cases registered has more than doubled in the last two years. In 2013, 5,693 cases were registered in India. In 2015, they went up to 11,592.

According to leading cybercrime expert, Rakshit Tandon, who is consultant to various state police departments and agencies and BPR&D, the actual figures would go up by several-fold if all incidents get converted into FIRs.

"Travelling across India, I have seen that cybercrimes are happening everywhere with impunity, even in places like Jharkhand. In fact, a nondescript town of Jamtara in Jharkhand has emerged as a major hub of cybercrimes.

The problem is that cybercrime victims have little knowledge of how and where to approach and even police stations in several areas have no knowledge about what to do with the complaints," says Tandon.

A major hurdle in tackling cybercrimes is poor knowledge, lack of infrastructure and connectivity between various police agencies and manpower shortage in police departments.

Digital or cybercrimes, by nature, are borderless. For example, a person in Ludhiana can buy a SIM card in Kolkata, do banking fraud in Delhi, move the money to Chennai and take it out of an ATM in Mumbai.

"That is why real-time digital connectivity between state police and various other departments is the key to solving cybercrimes. You need to work at the same pace or faster than the criminals," says Tandon.

According to the BPR&D official, the conviction rate can see a major jump if sub-inspector level officers are also allowed to investigate cybercrimes.

As per the IT Act, only an inspector-level officer (a police station usually has one or two inspector-level officers) can probe cybercrimes. There's a great shortage of inspector-level officers in the country.

"In my opinion, sub inspector-level police officers should also be allowed to investigate cybercrimes. A little amendment to the IT Act can do a lot of good to cybercrime policing," adds Tandon.