[India] 'Virtual' cops want laws to nab cyber criminals

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

[originally posted on the Cybercom India mailing list by Frederick 
Noronha <fred@GOA1.DOT.NET.IN>]


'Virtual' cops want laws to nab cyber criminals
by Imran Qureshi, India Abroad News Service

Bangalore, July 28 - With the spread of the Internet and consequent 
surfacing of cyber crime, police personnel in India have been feeling 
literally like 'virtual' cops, unable to do anything against 
offenders on the world wide web.  

They can merely watch when told that someone has been soliciting on 
the web, or even committing fraud or defamation.  

In their search for answers, police officers and legal experts met at 
a two-day conference here. They suggested that state governments take 
the lead in establishing laws to check the spread of cyber crime. The 
meet, organised by Karnataka Police and the Bureau of Police Research 
and Development, recommended the setting up of coordination panels at 
the national and regional levels by coopting legal and technology 
experts along with the police to help evolve a system to combat cyber 
crime.  

"Since the Indian information technology bill is yet to be passed by 
Parliament, an ordinance could be thought of by a new government. But 
this does not prevent the state governments from framing laws. In 
fact, the lead could be taken by the (Karnataka) government in 
Bangalore, India's Silicon valley," said Chief Vigilance Commissioner 
N. Vittal.  

Vittal, a former chairman of the Telecom Commission, agreed with Ravi 
Ghorane of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) that 
strategy needed to be formulated and constantly reviewed to meet the 
challenges of the virtual world.  

Ghorane, a criminal law assistant professor, raised some fundamental 
issues that seemed to bother technologists as well as police 
participants at the meeting -- whether the police is technology 
savvy, whether anything could be done without a law in the country 
and, if the law comes into force, what would be its effectiveness.  

"Let us be realistic. Is everybody ready to brace up to the challenge 
from the Internet? Are we well equipped to deal with it. The IT 
(information technology) law will become one more statute soon. But 
how are we going to implement it? Are we prepared to take off 
administratively. Are we well equipped to deal with implementation of 
the law?" Ghorane asked.  

He had a point. Participant after participant spoke of instances 
where evidence was destroyed due to lack of awareness. Oft-repeated 
was the story of a police officer stringing a bunch of floppies with 
a needle -- rendering them useless -- as evidence in a case.  

"To say that policemen are unaware is not correct. We have trained 
about 17,000 gazetted officers and an equal number of other policemen 
at the regional and state training centres. Very soon computer 
literacy will expand," said Sharada Prasad of the National Crime 
Records Bureau (NCRB).  

But that seems like a drop in the ocean. And, even if awareness was 
created and percolated down to the bottom of the ranks, the question 
was whether the police alone could handle an area where technology is 
changing by the day or the hour.  

"Even if there is a law, unless dual criminality (the crime could be 
committed in another country) is established, no law can be 
enforced," said V. Ganapathy, Additional Director General of Police 
in Tamil Nadu. For this "we need to have treaties with other 
countries, extradition should be made possible," S. Krishnamurthy, 
Additional Director General of Police (Technical Services) in 
Karnataka.  

"True, we are not techno savvy," conceded Krishnamurthy. "It would be 
impossible to expect policemen to become computer specialists. This 
is the reason why Karnataka Police has appointed computer specialists 
to assist the police."  

"Under the existing law, soliciting is by physical gestures. But here 
it is virtual gestures. How does one combat this? We need to amend 
the Indian Penal Code as well as the Criminal Procedure Code," said 
R.K. Dutta, Deputy Inspector General in the intelligence wing of 
Karnataka Police.  

Dutta said in the case of fraud or theft on the web, police was at 
present clueless about where to procure evidence. The Evidence Act 
would, therefore, have to be brought in tune with the times.  

But all this will take time, noted Balwinder Singh, Deputy Director, 
Intelligence and Computer Wing, Central Bureau of Investigation 
(CBI), Delhi. "There is a paradigm shift in the nature of crime. 
And...it will take a few years before we can deal with this 
effectively," he added.  

Vittal and Ghorane said the answer lies in first developing a 
strategy that would include training and educating not only the 
police, but also the judiciary, which often goes by advice of 
technical experts. For this the setting up of cyber cells at the 
state and national levels, with the participation of apex IT 
organisations, had to be considered.  

India's police appears to be still groping in the dark so far as 
cyber crime is concerned. But, as Krishnamurthy put it, "We know that 
we are totally inadequate. We have probably taken the first step on a 
25 step ladder. But at least we have begun."  

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