Nagpur: The Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Monday inaugurated the hi-tech Cyber Forensic Lab set up at premises of office of Nagpur Rural District Superintendent of Police here. “This Cyber Lab will help police smash the cyber crimes that have increased in recent times. The Lab will prove a deterrent to those ruffians who intend to perpetrate cyber crimes. The State Government is providing Rs 50 lakh for equipping the cops with modern gadgets for making the district crime free,” Bawankule announced.
API Arvind Saraf will be the head of this Cyber Forensic Lab.
Present on the occasion include MLA Sunil Kedar, Nagpur Range Special Inspector General of Police Ravindra Kadam, DSP Anant Rokde and other police officials and personnel. This Independence Day went into history as a momentous day as 44 such Cyber Labs were inaugurated in all the districts and city police headquarters across the State.
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The ambitious project has been designed to tackle cyber threats and crimes that are reported and will be taken to its logical end. All district and city labs have been connected with a central processing centre in Mumbai. Information will be tracked and exchanged 24×7 and then processed for further action. So far such a facility was not available at each district or police HQ.
The labs were built in a record time of 30 days. These labs are the need of the hour because of growing digital presence across the state. Cyber crimes are reported like never before and there are certain things that the government should also know and keep tabs on, to maintain law and order. The prime agencies such as the Railway Police, State Intelligence Department, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Crime Investigations Department, and Anti-Terrorism Squad will also have cyber forensic labs in the next phase of project.
Late last month, the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched a pilot project in Pune in which FIRs and police complaints can be registered online. This project is expected to be expanded to the entire state very soon. Other than tracking and investigating routine cyber crimes, the state will have its own mechanism MH-SERT in place in next two months. This system works for preventing major cyber attacks on its important installations, data centres, banks and other financial institutes.
“This centre will create cyber intelligence and help us in predictive policing which has become a norm in modern policing.” All government and judicial officers, public prosecutors, and people will also be trained under the cyber safety project.
Forensic Mobile Van:
Bawankule also inaugurated a sophisticated Forensic Mobile Van which was made available to city police. The Mobile Forensic Van will help the cops collect physical evidence and increase the conviction rate.
The DSP Rokde said that the police force is establishing communication with people through effective digital governance, SMS Base, SDR Support Scheme, ‘Pratisad App,’ Police Mitra App, Vehicle Portal etc.
