Topping cyber crime charts, Mum to get 4 cyber police stations

The Maharashtra government has approved the setting up of four cyber police stations in the metropolis to tackle increasing number of such crimes, a senior police official said today.

"Four new cyber police stations will come up in the city. The government has sanctioned 186 new posts for this initiative and most of them would be in the rank of assistant police inspectors," K M M Prasanna, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) told PTI.

The National Crime Records Bureau, in its report on crime in 2016, which was released on November 30 last year, had stated that Mumbai stood first among all cities in the country in terms of cyber crime cases.

The NCRB report stated that Mumbai stood first with 4,172 such cases reported for the year 2016, while Bengaluru was second with 762 cases and Jaipur third with 532 cases.

Mumbai currently has one cyber police station, at Bandra Kurla Complex, and officials said that it would become the first city in the country to have five such police stations once the proposed four are up and running.

The official said that the working of the five cyber police stations would be overseen by a deputy commissioner of police rank official who will report directly to the joint commissioner (crime).

"Mumbai Police had started cyber crime cells at all its 93 police stations a few months ago. These cells will forward serious matters to the five cyber police stations," he said.

"It will help us tackle cyber crime effectively which in turn will help the common citizen. We expect the government resolution on the setting up of these new cyber police stations in a week," Prasanna said.