Assam,11 May:The need to put in place an effective deterrent to combat the growing incidence of cyber crimes in the North-east was underscored by different speakers at a seminar on ‘Trends in cyber crimes and need for a deterrent mechanism in the North-east’ held at Guwahati recently.The seminar was organised by a North-East based NGO Social Action Network in association with the Centre for Mass Communication and Journalism, Cotton College, Guwahati.
The speakers felt that an updated legal mechanism apart, there was an urgent need to equip the police with the necessary tools and expertise for tackling the menace in the State and the North-east as a whole. For dealing with different forms of cyber crimes including hacking, stealing of password, phishing, credit card fraud, industrial espionage, illegal downloading, pornography and child pornography, creation and distribution of virus, etc., both the law and the investigation procedure needed to be streamlined, they said.
Justice J Chelameswar, Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, in his address as chief guest, suggested that cyber crime ought to be made a part of the curriculum in technical institutes. He said that a high level of expertise in computer and the Internet was necessary for dealing with cyber crimes and an average lawyer could not be expected to stand up to the intricacies of the task.
Director General of Assam Police RN Mathur said that notwithstanding the obvious constraints in pursuance of cases relating to cyber crime, the State CID had been able to crack several cases effectively and within a reasonably short period of time. “Some cases are pending but we have successfully pursued several cases. I also appeal to the public to approach the CID for any cyber crime-related cases,” he said.
Stating that the State police force was understaffed and largely computer illiterate, which often slowed down investigations into cyber crimes, Mathur said that of late the CID was taking several initiatives to enhance the force’s efficiency on the front. “We regularly conduct courses on cyber crime for officers from across the State. We also have forensic scientists dealing with cyber crimes and sophisticated software for facilitating investigations into such crimes,” he added.
The DGP also said that the IT Act was basically aimed at facilitating e-commerce and did not dwell much on different aspects of the emerging cyber crimes.