Six cyber labs to come up in State

Cyber crime cases set to cross 500 this year, say CID officials

By our staff Reporter

Guwahati, Nov 1: Ajit Dubey (me changed), an officer of a Central government organization, had befriended a woman - who was purportedly based in the US – online. The two got chatting on a social networking site and even spoke over telephone.

One day the woman confided to Dubey that her husband – who was a drug mafia – was killed in a shoot-out and that she wanted to shift to Assam with all her belongings, including a large amount of money which her husband had left. However, the woman told Dubey she required some immediate cash to sort out hassles in transferring her property to Assam.

It was only after transferring around Rs 53 lakh to help the woman to relocate to Assam that Dubey realized he had been duped. The woman’s online account is no longer active, nor is her mobile phone.

In similar cases, two female singers – one of them married- of the State were also duped of a large amount of money by online fraudsters.

Cyber crime cases in the State have seen a drastic jump, with the State CID recording 379 cases in 2014 as compared to 154 the previous year. In 2013, the number of cases was 28.

CID officials say this year, the number of registered cases will cross 500.

To deal with the mece, Assam Police has initiated a project to set up cyber labs in all the six police ranges in the State. Initial work of a lab at Jorhat (Eastern Range) and another at Silchar (Barak Valley range) have already started.

Besides, a modern Cyber Forensic Training & Investigation lab in Guwahati is also assisting the sleuths in cracking such cases.

“Earlier, we used to depend on other states for lab facilities. Now, we have it in our State. The lab will help combat cyber crime and train personnel for the job,” said a senior officer.

The officer said that in many cases the fraudsters were found to be based in African countries. “But technology has advanced such that even a man in Assam can dupe anyone posing to be resident of a foreign country,” he said.