The graph of cybercrime while is increasing day by day, a dedicated police station to combat high-tech fraud is yet to be set up in the district, although three years have elapsed after an announcement was made by the State Government to have such a police station in the district, along with the one each in Bhubaneswar and Jaipur.
The district officials maintain that a special cybercell is operational in the office of the Superintendent of Police but they exactly don’t know why a police station couldn’t be established here.
It may be noted that the State has cyber police stations at four places, including Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Brahmapur. Finding the necessity of such a police station in Baleswar, the Government had announced to set up a cyber police station in the district in order to exclusively deal with the crime.
Reports said the crime is more serious in nature than loot, dacoity and snatching etc. In a fraction of a second, the fraudsters are siphoning money from others' accounts.
Escalation of the crime of late is observed after the advent of mainly digital mode of financial transactions, through various UPI methods and different Apps. The fraudsters are making holes in the pockets of the gullible, even educated ones, via various tricks by pleas of Aadhaar update, ATM card activation and other lucrative offers etc .
Reports also said that as many as 300 cases related to cyber frauds have been reported in the last 5 years in the district.
In 2019 while the number of reported cases was 42, last year it was 56. This year till date, 29 cases have been reported. These crimes took place through hacking of accounts even through social media etc.
Last year, the fraud to the tune of over Rs 27 lakh was reported while 18 people were arrested and the recovered amount was nearly Rs 1.47 lakh.
In the current year, the amount is over Rs 17 lakh and no recovery is reported. Seeing the volume of frauds through digital mode transactions, it is demanded often from various quarters to establish a cyber police station in the district as per the announcement of the Government without further delay.