DGP announces to set up special cyber crime unit

LUCKNOW: Expressing concern over increasing trend of cyber crime, Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) OP Singh announced to set up a special cyber crime unit on the raising day of Uttar Pradesh’s elite investigation agency Special Task Force (STF) here on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, the DGP said the STF was formed on May 4, 1998 to combat organised criminal gangs exiting then but now crime and criminals had undergone a lot of change in the past 20 years. He said he was SSP Lucknow when the STF was formed and had seen it emerging as one of best agencies.

He said the STF also needed to be transformed to combat existing cyber crime trend nowadays. He said the state government had granted a fund of ₹ 4.5 crore and the union government had granted ₹ 4 crore for combating cyber crime against women and children. These funds would be utilised in the best possible manner to set up a separate cyber crime unit and training of officers through IT professionals at police academy of Moradabad. He said the STF would continue as the nodal agency for cyber crime-related incidents till the separate unit became operational.

Appreciating the UP STF work, the DGP said it had done a very good job in curbing wild life crime, checking malpractices in UP Board and other examinations as a part of the state government’s anti-copying campaign and helping break the nexus of drug peddlers. Simultaneously, the STF units had been focussing on some sensational crimes and organised gangs, he added. ADG Law and Order, Anand Kumar, IG STF Amitabh Yash and SSP STF Abhishek Singh were also present.