Karnataka State Police to introduce e-zero FIR for reporting cybercrimes soon

Karnataka State Police will soon introduce a feature where you can file e-zero FIRs in cases of cybercrimes, which will help banks freeze accounts that are laundering money in real time.

However, a complainant will have to present themselves before the jurisdictional police within three days to register an FIR following all due procedures, failing which the complaint will be closed.

Bengaluru City Police introduced the Cybercrime Incidence Report (CIR), a model that has now been adapted across the country with 1930 helpline to report cybercrimes. However, freezing accounts based on these tipline reports has been a problem at both ends of the spectrum.

Issues flagged

While many banks demand FIRs, which a CIR is not, the cybercrime police across the country have been getting accounts held beyond their jurisdictions frozen as well, leading to many genuine business accounts also being frozen, increasing the number of litigations.

For instance, a senior cybercrime police official said that in cases of investment fraud, victims are initially paid large profits to convince them to invest more, but these payments come from the accounts of other victims. The police from various jurisdictions end up freezing these victim accounts as well.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj of the High Court of Karnataka, while recently passing two judgments in such cases, flagged these issues and made Pronab Mohanty, Director-General of Police (Cyber Command), as the nodal officer to resolve these issues.

Centre’s recommendation

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has recently recommended the e-zero FIR, which sources in the Karnataka Police said would be implemented very soon. Work on the infrastructure to roll out this feature is in its final stages, sources said.

As per this scheme, when a victim calls the 1930 cybercrime tipline, the person attending the call enters the data in the Karnataka Police IT portal and the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP). The entry in the Karnataka Police IT portal will generate an e-zero FIR.

If the amount lost is below a threshold, which is yet to be decided, it will lead to a report on the e-lost platform and not an FIR. But if the amount lost is above the threshold, it will lead to a zero FIR.

Deciding jurisdiction

Again, if the jurisdiction of the crime is outside the State, the case will be referred to the respective State. This will prevent police from freezing accounts held beyond their jurisdictions, sources said. If the crime is within the State’s jurisdiction, it will be referred to the respective police station, where the victims will have to present themselves within three days to register a regular FIR.