Finally, there's hope and relief for victims, under new IT Act; 32 offences will now require mandatory police action

In 2006, a woman's fiance received an email from a man who said he was her ex boyfriend and that they had a

Log out: Malicious emails sent by a former lover to a current partner will attract a 3-year jail term

live-in relationship. The fiance asked her about it and she admitted to it. The wedding was called off immediately.

The girl was traumatised by the incident, but her ex was not penalised for sending the malicious email (with the intent to hurt), as it was not a punishable offence and therefore a police complaint could not be filed.

However, from December 2008, under Section 66C (identity theft) of the Information Technology Act 2000, a person can be fined Rs 1 lakh and/or given a three-year jail term for a similar offence.

The Information Technology Actu00a02000 was amended in December and under the new provisions, there are 32 technology-related cognizable offences. Earlier, all these offences were non cognizable and the complainant was asked to approach the court stating it was a civil case. The court in turn would direct the police to investigate, but of the 1,500 complaints received in the last nine years, just 40 cases were filed in the metropolitan courts, and all await an order.

The amended IT Act gives more teeth to law-enforcing agencies. The police have to register the offence as 'cognizable', investigate and have the authority to arrest the accused. Pranks like sending text messages from someone else's mobile or an email from another's address are also punishable offences section 66D (impersonation) of the IT Act, which attracts a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.

"The amendment was passed in a hurry on December 2008 along with eight other bills in just 17 minutes highlighting the lack of debate on what should have been very controversial laws," explained Vijay Mukhi, president of the Foundation of Information Security and Technology. "However, each of the offences using technology should have been done for personal gains / 'fun' by creating fear, hurting or harassing somebody. So only if there is genuine misuse of technology, can it fall under the IT Act," added Mukhi.

Advocate N S Nappinai co-founder of Technology Law Forum that specialises in technology law said, "The new amendment has retained vicarious liability in case of offences committed by a company and has increased the number of offences which qualify as cyber crimes under the new IT Act." Now, if a person uses his office computer to hack/send malicious email, even the company could be liable under the act, said Nappinai.

Added Rakesh Maria, Jt commissioner of police, "A separate cyber police station at BKC will start functioning soon. We have already recruited officers of the rank of inspectors for the job and there will also be 52 more staff including officers and constables."

150
Number of complaints the cyber cell receives every year

Facts
Over 1500 complaints received over last seven years
The cell receives about 150 cases every year
Cases going on in only 40 complaints
With the new amendment it is mandatory on police to register and probe the cyber case