NEW DELHI: As part of its anti-terror and counter-financial measures, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has blocked over 5.8 lakh SIM cards and 1,08,000 IMEIs of mobile handsets since Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed his first government in 2014, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar said.Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the MoS (Home) said, “Till date, more than 5.8 lakh SIM cards and 1,08,000 IMEIs, as reported by police authorities, have been blocked by the Government of India.”Even as police and public order are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, the Minister noted that the Centre supplements the initiatives of the States and Union Territories (UTs) through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for the capacity building of their Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs).“The States/UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of crimes including cyber-crime through their Law Enforcement Agencies,” Kumar said.With an aim to provide early-stage cyber forensic assistance to Investigating Officers (IOs) of State/UT Police, the Centre has established the state-of-the-art ‘National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation)’ under the aegis of I4C in New Delhi, the Minister said.“So far, the National Cyber Forensics Laboratory (Investigation) has provided its services to State LEAs in around 10,200 cyber forensics cases including mobile forensics, memory forensics, and CDR analysis to help them in the investigation of cases pertaining to cyber-crimes,” Kumar said.He added that the government has also launched the ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System’ under the I4C for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop the siphoning off funds by fraudsters.“So far, a financial amount of more than ₹2,400 crore has been saved in more than 7.6 lakh complaints. A toll-free helpline number ‘1930’ has also been operationalised to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints,” the MoS (Home) said.The Minister further informed that the MHA has provided financial assistance to the tune of ₹131.60 crores under the ‘Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)’ Scheme to the States and the UTs for their capacity building, including the setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring of junior cyber consultants, and training of LEAs’ personnel, public prosecutors, and judicial officers. He went on to add that so far 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers, and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber-crime awareness, investigation, and forensics at laboratories in 33 States and UTs.
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