By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 05, 2019: THE Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has gained high degree of credibility over the years and it has become a benchmark for investigation of crimes. He was speaking at the first National Conference on Cybercrime Investigation and Forensics, organized by the CBI, here today. The Minister congratulated the CBI for organizing the first national conference of its kind in the country. While complimenting the CBI, the Minister said that people from the most peripheral and remotest regions of the country trust the functioning of CBI. Dr Jitendra Singh said that India is still evolving as a nation and organizations like CBI have helped to add credibility to the Indian democracy. He further said that the nature of crime also evolves with the evolution of society, which makes it essential on the part of investigative agencies to evolve their techniques. The entire crime scenario has changed over the years, he added. He emphasized that the study of cyber crime is important for India, keeping in mind the fact that India has a huge population and that India has the second largest internet users in the world.  Speaking about the recent developments in the country, Dr Singh said that we are in the post-Article 370 abrogation scenario.  He expressed concern over the fact that the cyber manipulators are posing risk to the nation by circulating fake videos on the social media, which needs to be addressed. The Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, the Government has given thrust to the optimum use of technology. He quoted examples of Digital India, JeM, Aadhar and Jandhan scheme. The computer technology has entered a large number of household of India, he added. He added that the second thrust of the Government has been on our clarity in fight against terrorism and decisive actions have been taken in this regard. The Minister announced that a Centralised Technology Vertical (CTV) with a cost of  Rs 99 crore would be set up within CBI, which would be operational by next year. It would help in getting real time information for the benefit of interrogators, he added. The Minister said that tackling cyber crime cannot be left to CBI alone. He emphasized on the role of NGOs and activists to join this crusade to counter cybercrime by changing the mindset of masses. The Director, CBI, Mr R K Shukla said that this conference is a platform for State Police and Enforcement agencies to share their best practices and to replicate them. He said that cyber crime has become a global phenomena now and this conference would be an enriching experience for the agencies working at grass root levels.

The two-day conference was inaugurated by the Director, CBI yesterday. Around 50 Officers including DGPs, ADGPs, IGPs, DIGPs and SPs dealing with cybercrime in State & UT Police, Central Agencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, other Ministries, experts from Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and academia participated in the Conference. During the conference, several lectures, presentations and panel discussions on various topics/themes of law enforcement interest, including, Mobile/Digital Forensics, Inter-LEA information/ intelligence exchange, obtaining digital evidence from abroad, online harming including child sexual abuse, Social Media, establishing standard formats for data exchange between service providers and LEAs, Intermediary liability, Admissibility of Electronic Evidence were discussed in the deliberations.