Headless for 24 months, Mumbai Cyber Police department finally gets a DCP

The Indian Express in its December 24, 2024, report had highlighted the issue of how the state home department and (then) Mumbai police commissioner, amid rapidly growing cyber crimes, have failed to depute a full-time DCP (deputy commissioner of police) for the cyber police department for a long time.

DCP Balsingh Rajput served as the last full-time DCP Cyber till May 29, 2023. Since then various DCPs from the crime branch have been temporarily holding additional charge of the office of DCP Cyber for the past 24 months. DCP (detection) Datta Nalawde was last holding the additional charge of DCP Cyber. On Friday he was transferred back to zone 10.

The significance of full-time DCP

DCP Cyber supervises the functioning of five regional cyber police stations in the city that deal with all the major, important and sensitive cyber crime cases involving more than Rs 10 lakh.

Underlining the significance of having a full-time DCP Cyber, a police officer requesting anonymity said, “When an IPS officer or senior police officer is entrusted with the full-time job of this key post, then the performance of the five police stations improves.”

“The cyber police department is a specialised crime branch wing, which is expected to deliver results beyond just detecting cases involving more than Rs 10 lakhs and not focusing on planning and executing major crackdowns on bigger cyber crime syndicates,” a former cyber crime officer said.

The senior officer is expected to look into possible solutions and formulate policies for long-term goals, anticipating and identifying major cybercrime trends, potential threats and their root causes and plugging them with possible remedies to prevent future crimes, the officer added.

A full-time senior officer can also work with other cybercrime-combating agencies to conceptualise and introduce mechanisms for the prevention of stealing of data, which far more plays a very crucial role in most of the financial cybercrimes. The stolen data are rampantly used by fraud gangs for profiling and enlisting their potential victims to be targeted.

The officer further added, “To crack well-oiled professional gangs and rackets operating in other states or outside the country through trained professional cyber criminals, the planning, forming of policy and guidelines, and making strategies and subsequent execution of operations have to come from the upper brass of the police department and not from the lower rank officers.”

“A city like Mumbai needs to always have a dedicated senior police officer for the cyber department, as the cybercrime world is different from traditional crimes. It’s a rapidly evolving crime world. Every six months we see a new cybercrime method trending, with new gangs and new technology. By the time the police force understands, analyses, and trains police officers and prepares a strategy or method to tackle them, the fraud gangs have already looted many people and destroyed many lives. If the branch has a full-time DCP, then he/she could work on finding quick solutions and prompt executions. An officer holding an additional charge of this department would preferably focus on his primary posting’s work,” another former cyber police station official said.

13 DCPs transferred

On Friday 13 DCPs were transferred in an internal shuffle. DCPs Krishnkant Upadhyay, Datta Nalawde and Mahesh Chimte have been transferred to zones 3, 10 and 12, respectively. DCP Rajtilak Roushan has been given charge of DCP detection. Officers Navnath Dhavale, Vijaykanth Sagar, Sameer Shaikh and Rakesh Ola have been appointed DCPs of Anti-Narcotics Cell, Port, zone 6 and zone 7, respectively. DCPs Prashant Pardeshi, Nimith Goyal, Dattatray Kambale and Sachin Gunjal have been transferred to Traffic (south), Quick Response Team, Special Branch-1 and Prevention.