With the cyber crimes raising its ugly head in the state, Goa Police have constituted Cyber Crime cell in Panaji to deal with the hi-tech crimes.

The Cell, which was opened on April 15, 2002, is the part of crime branch of Goa Police and is headed by Superintendent of Police (crime) D C Srivastava.

However, the proposal for the formation of independent Cyber Crime Cell is under the consideration of the government. In the absence of the technical experts, the Cell is relying on the expertise of Pune based Asian School of Cyber Laws for technical support.

In fact, the idea of Cyber Crime Cell was the offshoot of the 15-day orientation course conducted by Asian School of Cyber Laws for the police officers in the state.

Police have expressed confidence in solving any cyber crime reported in Goa. According to Mr Srivastava, police officers in-charge of all the police stations in the state are well equipped to tackle such cases.

Interestingly, there has been only one case of website hacking reported with this Cell so far. Cyber Cell has sought the help of CBI and Interpol in tracking down the culprits who hacked the BJP website.

However, another case was registered before the opening of cell in which a youth had morphed the photograph of his girlfriend with a nude girl and posted on the website along with the telephone number of the girl. However, police did not get the opportunity to test their technical expertise in solving cyber crimes as the accused confessed to the crime and was released on bail.

According to police, Goa is not completely aloof from the cyber crimes as it appears, but number of cases go unreported because people do not have confidence in the authorities.