HYDERABAD, India: The government of India may believe that blocking blogs makes India safer, but the country’s record in handling cyber crime does not hold out much encouragement.
There has been only a single conviction under the IT Act in the past six years of its existence: State of Tamil Nadu vs Suhas Katti. India enacted the IT Act in May 2000 and became part of a select group of countries which have put in place cyber laws. Even six years down the line, law enforcement agencies are still groping in the dark on how to use the Act effectively.
To make matters more worrisome, very few cases have been registered under the IT Act despite the growing rate of cyber crime, including usage by terrorist outfits. According to the National Crime Record Bureau’s latest update, in 2004 only 68 cases have been registered while in 2003, 60 cases were filed. Today, an average of around 300 cases would be registered under the Act in Bangalore and about 100 in Chennai annually, cyber crime trackers say.
The reasons for the lacklustre takeoff of cyber crime cells range from low conviction rates to lack of provisions to protect confidentiality to difficulty in evidence collection. Hyderabad superintendent of police (cyber crime cell) Shivanand Reddy recalls, “the first case was registered with us in December 2002. So far, we have received only 25 complaints, of which 50% are from corporates and trials have not been completed in any of those cases.”
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Last update : 20-07-2006 01:00
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