Delhi Police Crime Branch gets cyber cell

To tackle the increasing number of cyber crimes, the Delhi Police on Monday set up its a cyber cell division in its Crime Branch - the third after similar cells in the Special Branch and Economic Offences Wing.

The new cyber cell, which will function from the old Kotwali police station building in central Delhi's Chandni Chowk, was inaugurated by Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi.

"The establishment of the cyber cell in crime branch will further augment the capacity of Delhi Police in detection of cyber crimes," said Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Yadav.

A total of 226 cases of cyber crime were registered in 2014 in comparison to 150 cases in 2013, 84 in 2012 and 99 in 2011.

"Cyber crime cases have witnessed a quantum jump over the past few years. These complaints are being received by hand as well as through post, e-mails and are generally related to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube," Yadav said.

Evidence in such cases is required to be immediately retrieval as it pertains to e-mails, websites, chat rooms and databases and has to be traced on the desktops, laptops as well as mobile phones, he said.

"It is imperative that the data is retrieved at the earliest and following the prescribed procedure for its admissibility in courts. Thus, in order to investigate cyber crime cases and quickly retrieve important data, a separate cyber cell has been set up in the Crime Branch," he said.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Taj Hassan told IANS: "This is the third cyber cell in Delhi Police. The other two are run by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing and Special Cell branches. It will also work in tandem with these two cyber cells."

The cell will start functioning under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime (HQ) M.A. Rizvi, who has previously handled cyber crimes during his tenure in the EOW.