To comprehensively deal with various kinds of cybercrimes, Haryana Police is in the process of establishing a Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (R4C) in the State, Director General of Police (DGP), Manoj Yadava said on Wednesday.

In a statement, he said this would assist in enhancing capability in cyber  investigations and act as a nodal point to contain the menace. A proposal to establish R4C has already been sent to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, this year. After getting the approval, the same would be established in the year 2021, he added.

Yadava said that there has been a phenomenal increase in use of computers, smartphones and the internet over a period of time.

With this cybercrime has emerged as a major challenge for the police. Increased use of technology due to the Covid pandemic in recent times has also led to sharp rise in cybercrime incidents.

Addition of more capability would help us detect technology-based crime effectively, he added.

The DGP said that Haryana Police is committed to provide and create an ecosystem for dealing with cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner across the State.

Apart from R4C, Police is also creating Cyber Response Centres (CRCs) by enlarging its existing Cyber cells to deal with cybercrime complaints like bank frauds, misuse of payment gateways, social media etc.

Terming 2020 as a good year for Haryana Police in terms of enhancing police capability in handling cybercrimes, he said that this year the State government had also issued sanction for creation of six Cyber Police Stations, one each at Rohtak, Hisar, Karnal, Ambala, Rewari and Faridabad. A total of 264 posts of police officials and technical experts have been created for these police stations. Apart from this, two cyber police stations are already functional at Gurugram and Panchkula. In addition, a Cyber Forensic Laboratory has been set up at Panchkula at a cost of Rs 2.30 crore under the scheme Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children.

He said that more cyber security awareness programmes would also be conducted in the coming year to save children from cyber bullying, cyber stalking etc. At the same time, advisories pertaining to cybercrime are also being shared with the general public through social media platforms.