The Mumbai police has proposed a cyber crime police
centre in Bandra that will house five cyber crime police
stations along with other facilities such as cyber
laboratories. The centre, where all cases of cyber crime
across the city will be investigated, will operate from
a building slated to come up on a plot opposite Lucky
Hotel in Bandra
Joint commissioner of police (administration) Anup Kumar
Singh told The Indian Express, “Yes, there has been a
proposal sent to the government seeking permission to
set up a building that will house all cyber crime police
stations. The plot is near the Bandra railway station.
At present, there is a traffic police chowky at the
spot.”
Given the rising cases of cyber crime complaints, the Mumbai Police had put in a proposal to set up four more cyber crime units in the city. Later, instead of cyber crime cells, the police asked for the setting up of cyber police stations.
A police station gets a higher police presence as compared to a cells and is also able to register FIRs. Eventually, the Maharashtra government approved the proposal. The four police stations in addition to the existing BKC cyber police station will be shifting to the new building.
“Mumbai is divided into five regions for policing. We already had a cyber police station at Bandra Kurla Complex. We had sought for four more police stations that would be responsible for cyber crime cases in each region,” said a senior IPS officer.
He added, “Earlier, we had planned that each cyber police station would be located in separate regions. After deliberations, we agreed that a centralised office for fighting cyber crime equipped with cyber laboratories would make much more sense.”
At present, the BKC cyber police station alone handles cases of cyber crime registered across the city while cases related to economic offences are probed by the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell.
While local police stations too have been instructed to register FIRs in cases of cyber crime complaints, on several occasions, they ask the complainants to visit the cyber police station.
“We have received several grievances in the past about complainants having to go from the local police station to the cyber police station to register their complaints. We hope that when the centralised office for cyber police station comes up, there will be no such problems,” added the senior officer.
