Cyber crime cases registered a rise of 22 per cent in Jharkhand in 2018 even as the State police is geared up to tackle new technologies and methods used by miscreants to siphon off money from bank accounts of victims.
Additional director general (ADG) of Police Ajay Kumar Singh informed media persons on Tuesday that number of cyber cases lodged with different police stations of State in 2018 was 917 compared to 751 in 2017.
He stated that eight more police stations would be notified as cyber units in State. He added police were also carrying out awareness drive among students on the issue. Singh said after receiving complaints police froze accounts containing around Rs 2.17 crore in 2018 to prevent withdrawal of money.
A senior official added that 97 per cent of cyber crimes were committed against customers who took help of others for monetary transactions.
The CID ADG stated that a positive sign in overall law and order scenario was the decline in crime against women including rape, murder, murder for dowry, atrocities, eve teasing, kidnapping and witch hunting.
He said killing in name of witch hunting declined to 22 in 2018 compared to 45 in 2017. Rape cases declined from 1,322 in 2017 to 1,009 in 2018. Cases registered in connection with kidnapping of women decreased from 1,276 in 2017 to 821 in 2018.
Police also continued intensive operations against drug smugglers arresting 279 of them for various crimes. A total of 221 cases were registered against them last year. During the drive against opium cultivation, police destroyed crops standing on around 2,160 acres of land.
A special drive to dispose off long pending cases under major heads also continued in 2018 in which 1001 cases were enlisted. A total of 513 accused persons have been convicted during the campaign so far out of whom 97 were sentenced for life. The conviction in these cases is 71 percent, which is very high as per national standards.
The ADG further stated following HC directives police also took measures for speedy execution of warrants and confiscation of properties. A total of 12,992 properties were confiscated and 1,39,572 warrants executed of in 2018.
On organised crime the police stated that in past one year 44 members of 39 gangs have been arrested. The number of crimes registered with police stations in 2018 was 52,853 against 51,162 in 2017 which is a rise of 3.3 percent. Senior police officials including Ranchi DIG Amol V Hmokar were present in the meeting.