GUWAHATI, June 15 - The Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which is the go-to place for all law-enforcement agencies, has stopped entertaining cyber crime cases forwarded to it by the Assam Police.
This has put the law-enforcing agencies in a spot as it is hindering the progress of ongoing investigation of a number of cases, mostly being of serious nature.
Sources told The Assam Tribune that the cyber crime lab has been lying defunct ever since its last in-charge Mukul Kuli had expired, and as a result, cases have continued to pile up. As of now, over 120 cyber crime cases are lying unattended at the FSL.
�The FSL has not been able to rope in a full-time cyber expert in the last four years. The situation has become very difficult for us as the number of cases related to cyber crime is increasing fast,� official sources said.
�At a time when cyber security is being as the biggest challenge for law-enforcing agencies, such a situation can lead to serious problems in future,� said an Assam Police officer.
The Gauhati High Court, too, has recently taken strong exception to the backlog of criminal cases in the State.
Explaining the situation, official sources said that there is a huge demand for full-time cyber experts in today�s world and the salaries and perks offered by the State or for that matter the Central government are too meagre to attract such professionals.
�We had somehow managed to rope in two technical experts but they have not been able do according to the need in the cases we have been asked to investigate,� sources explained.
�The FSL even tried to get an expert on contractual basis but that too did not succeed,� sources added.
�A cyber crime expert needs to keep abreast with the fast changing dynamics of modern technologies. It needs constant research. The ramification of cyber crime have undergone drastic makeover, and unfortunately, most of the Assam Police personnel attached with the cyber crime unit in CID do not have the expertise to crack cyber cases of serious nature,� sources added.
