Sunday, 13 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
The incident of the shooting the obscene video and sharing and uploading on the internet highlights the growing number of cyber crimes in India
The reported leak of objectionable material from Chandigarh University allegedly by a student and her boyfriend has shocked the entire country. The Chandigarh University located in Punjab’s Mohali witnessed widespread protests and demonstrations. Although, Punjab police clarified the whole row in a statement in which the top officers said that the only clip of the accused woman was shared with her boyfriend who allegedly uploaded it on the internet and further added that no other clips of her fellow hostel mated were shot or shared.
The incident of the shooting the obscene video and sharing and uploading on the internet highlights the growing number of cyber crimes in India. Police have registered a case under section 354C of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act which deals with crimes like online frauds, child pornography, stealing of identity and violation of privacy.
Cyber Crime cases on a rise
In recent years, cyber crime cases have shown an increase. According to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 52,974 such cases were registered in the country. In 2018, the number was 27,248. This shows a two-fold increase in cyber crimes in the country.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
The southern state of Telangana has topped the chart as it recorded 10,303 cases of cyber crimes in the previous year. Telangana was followed by Uttar Pradesh which reported 8829 cyber crimes in 2021. The eastern states of Assam and Odisha also became the targets of cyber crimes as Odisha reported 2037 cases of cyber crimes and Assam was fifth on the list with 4846 cyber crimes. Punjab, the state where the recent incident took place in the Chandigarh University in Mohali reported 551 cases of cyber crime in 2021. Punjab had reported 378 cyber crime cases in 2020 and 243 in 2019. This shows that the cases of cyber crime in Punjab have increased at an alarming rate as the state reported a twofold rise in cyber crime cases from 2019 to 2021.
In the case of Chandigarh University, apart from section 354C of the IPC, Punjab police have registered the case under the Information Technology Act. The chart below shows the number of cases registered under section 67 (Publication/ transmission of obscene / sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the IT act.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
The section 67 of the Information Technology Act reads that,’ Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act or conduct shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.’
In 2017, 2694 cases were registered under section 67. This number increased by three times to 6032 in 2019 and by more than four times in the year 2020. The pandemic year witnessed the highest number of cases registered under section 67 of the IT as 9316 cases were registered. Cyber crime is considered as one of the most conveniently committed crime as it does not require a physical space and this is the reason that 2020 witnessed the highest number of cases during the lockdowns.
The government of India and the state governments have taken variety of measures to control the cyber crimes but this has brought the number of cyber crimes down. The GOI has also launched a national portal dedicated towards receiving cyber crime complaints. The portal has been named as National Cyber Crime Portal (NCCP) and functions under the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs. But in spite of such measures, the data shows a different story.
