Hyderabad: Cybercrime cases in Telangana and Hyderabad continue to witness notable acquittal rates, with fraud-related offences topping in the list, according to recent NCRB data. Though not in a highlighting number, acquittal still turns out to be a concern.
Officials highlighted that cases involving financial frauds, including debit and credit card frauds, ATM scams, and OTP-related frauds, often see victims opting for settlements at Lok Adalat platforms. Such compromises reduce the number of cases reaching prosecution contributing for higher acquittal rates.
Cybercrime offences usually are registered under both the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act. Offences under the IT Act include ransomware attacks, dishonestly receiving stolen computer resources, identity theft, cheating by personation, and violation of privacy, while cyber terrorism, abetment, and attempts to commit such offences are also recorded.
Under IPC, forgery, defamation, morphing, creating fake profiles, counterfeiting, blackmail, threats, and spreading false information on social media. Among these specific offences, fraud remains the highest contributor to acquittals, followed by publication or transmission of obscene or sexually explicit content in electronic form, computer-related offences, identity theft, and cheating by personation using computer resources.
A senior official from the cyber crime wing stated that another major factor is the interstate nature of many cybercrime cases. When the accused is from other states, they are brought in through Production of Trial (PT) Warrants. During trials, these individuals are frequently unavailable, delaying proceedings or leading to cases being acquitted.
In Telangana, 461 fraud cases were acquitted compared to 30 in Hyderabad, while 378 cases of electronic sexual content offences were acquitted in Telangana versus 29 in Hyderabad. Similarly, computer-related offences saw 88 acquittals in Telangana and 34 in Hyderabad, identity theft 200 and 5, and cheating by personation using computer resources 142 and 6, respectively.
Acquittal Cases in Telangana and Hyderabad
Fraud: 461 and 30
Publication or transmission of obscene or sexually explicit acts in electronic form: 378 and 29
Computer-related offences: 88 and 34
Identity theft: 200 and 5
Cheating by personation using computer resources: 142 and 6
