State witnesses decline in number of cyber crime cases, 909 reported in 2023

Guwahati, Nov 9: Assam has witnessed a sharp decline in the number of cyber crime cases.

The State recorded only 909 cases of cyber crime in 2023 compared to 1,733 such incidents registered in 2022, which is a decrease of over 47 per cent on an annual basis, as per latest official data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

A total of 903 individuals were arrested for alleged involvement in cyber crime in Assam during the year under review and 659 persons were charge-sheeted.

Assam ranked 13th with regard to the number of cyber crime cases among all the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India in 2023.

This is an improvement from 2022 when the State had ranked 9th.

It is also noteworthy that Assam had reported the fifth highest number of cyber crime cases among all the States and UTs in 2021, when as many as 4,846 cases were

recorded.

During 2023, the latest year for which data has been made public, Karnataka (21,889) reported the maximum number of cases of cyber crime, followed by Telangana (18,236), Uttar Pradesh (10,794), Maharashtra (8,103), and Bihar (4,450).

Out of the total cases in Assam during the year, 385 were registered for computer related offences, 414 for ‘publication/transmission of obscene/sexually explicit act in electronic form’, 48 were under other sections of the Information Technology Act, one for abetment of suicide by online method, one for ‘cyber stalking/bullying of women and children’, 46 for cheating, three for forgery, one for creating fake profile, three for cyber blackmailing, and seven were for other IPC offences.

With regard to motive, 174 cases of cyber crime in Assam had personal revenge as the intention, 89 were on account of anger, 138 were committed with an intention of fraud, 132 were attributed to extortion, 12 were committed with the motive of causing disrepute, six were intended as prank, 59 were committed with intention of sexual exploitation, three had political motives, one was done to disrupt public service, two for spreading piracy, and 293 were for other reasons.

Of the total cyber crime cases in Assam, 469 were against women and in 40 incidents the victims were children, as per the data.

Some north-eastern States reported a rise in the number of such offences during the year under review, while some others registered a decline in cases compared to 2022.

Cyber crime cases in Arunachal Pradesh went up to 24 in 2023 as against 14 in the previous year, while Mizoram registered 31 in 2023 compared to only one in 2022. In Tripura, the number of cases registered increased to 36 from 30 during the period.

Manipur reported three cases in 2023 as against 18 in 2022, while in Meghalaya the number of cases fell to 64 in 2023 from 75 in the previous year. In Nagaland, there were two cases in 2023, as against four in 2022.

Nationally, a total of 86,420 incidents of cyber crime were reported in 2023, which is an increase of more than 31 per cent compared to 65,893 cases registered in the year ago period.