Bengaluru contributes 75 percent of cyber crimes across cities. Police suggests locking social media profiles for enhanced security.
Recently, a case has been registered in the city where a man edited photos of his female friends and later blackmailed them, said B. Dayananda, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru.
He was addressing a press conference at the office of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Infantry Road.
He raised concern over the rising cases of cybercrime. He said, “We registered a case where a man morphed photos of his female friends and colleagues and later blackmailed them.”
After investigating, police found out that over 12,000 photos of women were stored in the accused’s laptop, he said.
Rakshit, a lawyer said that Section 67 of Information Technology Act, 2000, is the main provision under which the accused can be booked for three years of imprisonment and upto Rs. five lakhs fine.
Rakshit also said, “Accused can also be booked under Section 509 of IPC where modesty of a woman is insulted and Section 292 of IPC to protect obscene photos being transferred.”
Amendments are made from time to time for protection of users from cybercrime. Methods such as two-factor authentication, change of passwords, and not sending personal photos are put into place. Dayananda said, “I appeal to people to lock their profiles and post on close friends list to prevent their photos from being used in unscrupulous ways.”
Not only the sociological aspect but also the psychological part of a person gets affected in such cases. Dr. Surya Prasad, Psychiatrist from iBrains-Centre for Precision Neuro-Psychiatry, said that women worry about their marital status after misuse of their photos and what people will say.
Dr. Surya further said, “People tend to suffer from low self esteem and feel guilty of something they have not done. They isolate themselves, become emotionally unstable, and feel scared.” Fear of blackmailers and what they might do with the photos, poses a real threat to women, he added.
Madhu Gowda, a lawyer said, “Computer is a powerful AI tool which can make or destroy a person’s life.” Madhu further said that a person can directly file a case in Supreme Court under article 32 and in High Court under articles 226 and 227 to fastrack the process.” Out of 100 such cases, 10 cases get registered while 90 go un-noticed, he added.
According to The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Bengaluru registers 75 percent of cyber crime cases of all metro cities. The city reported 9,940 cyber crime cases of the 13,534 cases reported in 19 metro cities during 2022.
