The first woman Additional Director General of Police of Uttar Pradesh posted in the Agra zone, IPS officer Anupam Kulshreshtha, has been focusing on cyber frauds and cybercrimes of late. Rampant all over the country, cybercrime has become a challenge for the police, and the officer is going all out against cyber criminals.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, she shared details about the methods being employed by her team to fight these crimes.
FIGHTING CYBER CRIMES
Cyber, online, and mobile crimes have become very common but are still difficult to investigate as these criminals are not easily traceable. Ms. Kulshreshtha realized the importance of capacity building of her team to be able to tackle cybercrimes.
“We have a cyber crime cell at the zone level and we have prepared new and unique SOPs which have proven to be very effective,” shared the officer.
The documents have been made in a pictorial manner where every detail related to cybercrime and its dealing has been explained in a simple manner, making it easy for the team members to understand.
OPERATION JAGRITI
Her second area of focus is showing zero tolerance towards crimes against women, under the umbrella of Mission Shakti. She ensures quick and prompt actions and sensitive handling of all such cases, small or big.
Under Operation Jagriti, there are three major areas concerning crimes against women. The first focuses on family feuds where women are pushed to the forefront to lodge complaints to portray it as a crime against women, just to make it look more serious.
“It becomes very difficult to understand such cases as we cannot properly judge if it’s a true case or a false one. It is very important to sensitize women that writing a false case of crime is not right and they could be penalised for it. We try to ward off such cases through this project,” Ms. Kulshreshtha told Indian Masterminds.
They also tell these women the correct course that should be taken in such cases of family feuds and land snatching, in order to further nip the bud.
SENSITIZING TRAUMATIZED WOMEN
The second aspect of the project focuses on women who are actually traumatized because of exploitation, harassment, stalking, or molestation, among other things. Such cases can lead to psychological trauma which could be serious.
Operation Jagriti aims to provide proper psychological training and counseling to such girls and helps them in coming out of their agony.
PROTECTING UNDERAGE GIRLS
The third aspect of the project focuses on underage girls, below the age of 18 years, who get entangled in illicit love affairs leading to elopement. Such girls do not understand the implications of their actions and go against their parents’ will.
They come back to their parents only after getting exploited by their boyfriends. Such relationships are infamous for leaked video tapes and MMS, which cause much distress to the girls and their parents.
“As police, we register their cases and take further action but who is going to explain to these girls to not fall in such muck, in the first place? Girls who get exploited understand this when it’s too late, and girls who haven’t yet been exploited don’t understand this at all and keep going deeper into it. It is very important for us to counsel these young girls and educate them about the same,” the officer said.
She also sits for one-to-one meeting with the girls to explain to them about their boundaries and how they should not overstep them as the consequences are generally not good.
In her pursuit of justice for women, Ms. Anupam Kulshreshtha is addressing the evolving challenges of cybercrime and crimes against women determinedly.