Cybercrime complaints in Chennai witness huge spike

CHENNAI: The number of cybercrime complaints which was 748 in the year 2011 has touched 13,077 in 2021 in Chennai city according to a policy note on the police department tabled by Chief Minister MK Stalin in Assembly on Monday.

The process of digitisation, internet penetration, and widespread use of mobile phones had virtually resulted in the steady increase of cybercrimes in the recent past, the note said.

The increase in the number of complaints over a decade adds up to 1,648 per cent.

"The challenges faced in cybercrime cases are that the accused are mostly from foreign countries which complicates the process of investigation, arrest of the accused and the recovery of property.

To tackle this problem, Cybercrime teams were formed in all 11 police districts of Greater Chennai Police in addition to the 5 cybercrime

police stations, each one at all the 4 zones and one in CCB.

By the seamless efforts of the squad, Rs.6.75 crores have been redeemed back to the complainants in the last couple of months itself," the policy note added.

Even though the bank accounts of the accused are frozen, the process of redeeming the money back to the complainant is unduly delayed due to the cumbersome legal procedures, the note further said.

To investigate scientific lines, a cyber forensic lab

has been set up with a high-end forensic work station, disc forensic, mobile forensic and social media tool at Rs 6.90 crore under the safe city project.