CBI chief bats for using resources to curb cybercrime, calls detection and conviction very difficult

Gandhinagar | CBI Director Praveen Sood on Wednesday pitched for the prevention of cybercrime using existing resources and admitted that detection and conviction in digital offences are quite difficult due to their borderless nature.

Speaking at the valedictory session of the 50th All India Police Science Congress at Rashtriya Raksha University, he also called for the extensive use of the “plea bargaining” provision of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) to reduce the pendency of cases in courts.

“I agree it is not easy to catch cybercriminals. It is very, very difficult. The chances of prosecution in cybercrime are five per cent and the chances of conviction are one per cent because of the very nature of crime. But why are we not able to intervene in cybercrime by doing predictive analysis,” he asked.

The chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that cybercriminals require SIM cards and bank accounts to commit offences, and both can be obtained through fake KYC (know your customer).

Resources should be used to analyse where these fake KYC-supported accounts are being opened, and how they are being opened, he said.

“I think the time has come when we need to put all our scientific knowledge into the prevention of cybercrime. Because detection is very difficult, and conviction is still more difficult because these are borderless crimes from any part of the country,” the CBI chief said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is collecting a huge amount of data on SIM cards and bank accounts, and law-enforcement officials should be able to figure out some patterns and draw inferences using these numbers, he said.

Sood also expressed the need to safeguard the huge amount of data being created at the state and district levels to capture traffic and other offences and said that these details should be put to better use than remain in silos.

“I have seen many states and districts where a lot of IT initiatives are being taken but all the data is lying somewhere in private domain. We have not paid attention to which servers these data are being stored,” he said, calling it “a very dangerous situation” as these data can potentially be misused.

“If these data remain in silos, it will not produce any good result unless all the data are connected. We have to migrate from e-governance to c-governance, that is, connected governance. All the databases have to be integrated, and I must say that a lot of databases are being integrated, and this integration will result in excellent outcomes,” he added.

Sood also called for increased use of the provision of plea bargaining, saying it drastically reduces the sentence of an accused when he pleads guilty thereby saving the resources that go into the judicial process.

Plea bargaining is an arrangement whereby the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence or an agreement to drop other charges.

From 2006 to 2024, crores of cases have been decided, but only 18,000 cases, or 0.01 per cent, have been decided through plea bargaining, said the chief of the federal probe agency.

BNSS has made the provision even more attractive, especially for first-time offenders, he said.

Those who opt for plea bargaining get half of the minimum punishment of a case without trial, and one-third where minimum punishment is not prescribed. For first-time offenders, the punishment has been further reduced to one-fourth of the minimum sentence, and one-sixth where the minimum punishment is not required, he said.

This will help save resources if lakhs of cases can be settled through plea bargaining, he said.

“Why don’t we use this provision of plea bargaining aggressively? I am saying that because we have started (that) in CBI. We have tried to use this and that too with a fair amount of success. Why don’t we use this section 290 (plea bargaining) of BNSS proactively and get the judicial system lightened,” he asked.

About the use of forensic science in police investigations, the CBI chief listed three factors – right manpower, procurement of equipment and improving the output of the available infrastructure – as big challenges.

“Even when the Centre has provided a huge amount of funds for strengthening forensic infrastructure, the states are not able to procure the right equipment, and therefore there is a tremendous need for learning in that area,” he said.

Sood conceded that certain policy-related constraints prevent the proper use of available forensic infrastructure, such as calling experts to courts, and integrity of reports created by forensic labs.

“It is also high time we started discussing if we can integrate fingerprinting with forensic science,” he added.