UP govt sets up 18 cyber police stations to curb e-commerce frauds

The Uttar Pradesh government has set up 18 dedicated cyber police stations to curb the growing instances of e-commerce frauds in the state.

While cyber police stations are already operational in Lucknow and Noida, the state has now set up similar units in each of the 16 remaining police ranges, thus taking the tally to 18 in the state.

According to UP additional chief secretary (home department) Awanish Kumar Awasthi, cyber criminals adopted innovative tactics to defraud gullible citizens during the current Covid-19 pandemic in the name of PM Cares fund, social security schemes, e-commerce, online booking of goods and services etc.

“The state government has issued an advisory to the concerned officials to curb growing instances of cyber crimes, which has helped in controlling such frauds to a large extent,” he said.

Apart from the cyber police stations, the UP Police has also constituted special cyber cells at 149 police stations spanning 75 districts to deal with cases of cyber crimes and misuse of social media. They have been equipped with modern surveillance and investigation gadgets.

Currently, these cyber cells in UP comprise 1,717 police inspectors, 1,717 sub inspectors, 3,458 constables apart from 279 support staff, additional director general of police (ADG), cyber crime K S Pratap Kumar said.

For administrative purposes, the 8 zones in UP - Lucknow, Bareilly, Meerut, Agra, Kanpur, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Varanasi and Gorakhpur  - have been further divided into 18 police ranges, each headed by an inspector general of police (IG) or deputy IG rank officer.

Last year, then UP director general of police (DGP) O P Singh had observed that proliferation of internet had widened the scope of cyber crimes, which necessitated the expansion of the state cyber crime wing.