Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) Shatrujeet Kapur on Thursday said that State Police ranked first in the country in preventing cyber fraud in the year 2024. State Police saved approximately Rs 268.40 crore from cybercriminals, compared to Rs 76.85 crore in 2023. Thus, Three times more money was saved from cybercriminals in 2024 compared to 2023 and five times more than in 2022, he added.

DGP said that State Police is also taking strict action against cybercriminals and sending them behind bars. In 2022, 2165 cases were registered against cybercriminals, while in 2023, 2747 cases and in 2024, 5511 cases were registered. Similarly, in 2022, the State Police arrested 1078; in 2023, 1909 were arrested and in 2024, 5156 cyber criminals were arrested. Out of the total criminals arrested in 2024, 70 per cent (3555 criminals) are from other states. On an average, 14 cyber criminals were arrested daily by the State Police in 2024.

Kapur further said that effective efforts are being made by the Haryana Police to return the amount blocked from the cybercriminals to the victim's account. Rs 33 crore was refunded to cyber fraud victims in 2023, which was increased to Rs 95 crore 45 lakh 14359 (almost three times) by November 2024. All 29 cyber police stations in the state have been instructed to refund the money back to the victims through Lok Adalat, so that people do not have to go to courts to get the money. Punjab and Haryana High Court on the request of Haryana Police has issued orders to all District and Session courts to abolish the requirement of filing an FIR to refund, so that the fraudulent amount can be refunded without any delay.

DGP further said that in 2024, the team of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) of the Government of India, along with Google and other fintech companies, visited the Haryana Police's Cyber Helpline-1930 and appreciated its functioning. Along with this, the cyber teams of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi also studied the work of cyber security of the Haryana Police and expressed their interest to implement the best practices here in their respective states, DGP added.