A young man was arrested by the Karnataka police on charges of trolling two minors by uploading vulgar Instagram photos. According to DCP South East Srinath Mahadev Joshi, the accused was apprehended in Kalburgi district by the Cyber Crime police investigating the case.
The latest Tweet by IANS India states, “The #Karnataka police have arrested a youth on charges of uploading vulgar photos, including of two minors, on Instagram and trolling them. The #CyberCrime police investigating the case have nabbed the accused from Kalburgi district, DCP South East Srinath Mahadev Joshi said.”
Bengaluru registers the highest cases of cybercrime
The country’s IT hub is also a hotbed for criminal activity. Bengaluru continues to lead India in the number of cybercrimes reported in 2020 for the third consecutive year. What’s worse is that during the same period, not a single conviction was obtained.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released data on ‘Crime in India’ for 2020, showing that Bengaluru accounted for nearly 47% (8,892) of the 18,657 cybercrime cases registered throughout India.
Surprisingly, however, it is Uttar Pradesh and not Karnataka, that leads the country in the number of cybercrime cases. The number of cases in the city has decreased when compared to previous years: in 2019, the city recorded 10,555 cases, while in the previous year, 5253 cases were registered.
In Karnataka in 2020, no one was found guilty of a crime. According to the NCRB, the police dealt with 3,298 cases, but there are still 22,809 cases that need to be investigated. The police have filed charge sheets in 2582 of the 2020 cases that they have investigated.
Reasons for crimes
According to the data, the most common reason people commit cybercrimes in the city is to fraud others. Frauds accounted for 8.318 of the cases filed. There were also cases involving personal vengeance (83 cases), causing disrepute (362 cases), sexually explicit content (89 cases), and political vengeance (5), among others.
Bengaluru, one of India’s 19 major cities, has the second-highest number of murder cases, after Delhi, and ahead of Mumbai. A total of 179 murders (under Section 302 of the IPC) and 191 deaths have been reported in the city, according to NCRB data. While Delhi had the most cases and victims, Mumbai came in second with 148.
Throughout 2020, there were 29,193 murder cases reported across India, an increase of just 1% over the previous year (28,915 cases).
The city was also in the top three for the number of people killed in traffic accidents as a result of carelessness. In the year 2020, there were 635 such cases and 674 people had died as a result of the incidents reported.
New challenges
Basavaraj Bommai, the Karnataka chief minister, called cybercrime, drug trafficking, and the dark web “new challenges” that must be tackled with new technology and sophisticated equipment.
To keep track of cases, he said, DGs and all SPs should have access to a dashboard.
“There are new challenges like cybercrime, drug mafia, cracking the dark web, all these new kinds of crimes have to be cracked down by using new technology, using advanced equipment,” Bommai said.
After inaugurating a conference of senior police officers in Bengaluru, he spoke to reporters from the Indian Express, saying that the Karnataka police is known for its efficiency and has a good name throughout the country, and stressed the need to continue the tradition with excellent efficiency.
“Law and order situation and crimes should be completely under control, and investigation should happen impartially,” he said, highlighting the need for people-friendly policing and improving the crime reporting system.
Home Minister Araga Jnanendra was in attendance, as were DG & IGP Praveen Sood, as well as other top officials from the department and the police force.
