Ministry of Home Affairs today denied media reports that said that the center would set up a police force dedicated to fighting cyber crime.
Law and order is a state subject in India, and currently cyber crimes are dealt with by state police forces.
Earlier this year, media reports suggested that the home ministry had set in motion a process to set up a central cyber police force known as Cyber Warrior Police Force or CWPF, on the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force or CISF and other reserve police forces.
“At present, there are no plans to setup Cyber Warrior Police Force,” said Hansraj Ahir, junior minister for home affairs, government of India.
Ahir, however, said it would set up a Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) that would assist and work with the existing cyber crime divisions of state police forces.
“The main objective of the I4C scheme is to set up a national cyber crime coordination center for law enforcement agencies of States and Union Territories as an effective apparatus to handle issues related to cyber crime in the country,” he said.
Media reports had said that the central cyber police would look at crimes like financial fraud and child pornography.
However, the prospect of clashing jurisdictions seem to have deterred such plans.
Many cyber crimes in India, such as the infamous phishing attacks from Jharkhand, transcend the jurisdiction and territory of a single state.
In case of the Jharkhand phishing attacks, for example, the perpetrators sit in one state, while the victims are rarely located in the same state.
This has raised the need for speedy and transparent coordination between the cyber crime divisions of various police forces — something that the I4C is expected to address.