Hyderabad: Cybercrime victims can now file complaints from home

Hyderabad: With Hyderabad seeing a sharp rise in cybercrimes, the police on Friday, January 9, launched a new initiative allowing cybercrime victims to register complaints without having to visit a police station.

“C-Mitra,” a virtual help desk, will help citizens draft complaints through artificial intelligence (AI), which can then be sent to the police station through post. The initiative is currently only available for residents under the Hyderabad Police Commissionerate.

How to use the service

• Victims must first report the crime by calling the helpline number 1930 or lodge a complaint with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
• After the crime is reported, “virtual police officers” from the C-Mitra team will contact the victim.
• Since many victims are unsure about legal terminology or relevant sections of the law, the C-Mitra team, utilising AI, will draft a precise complaint based on the details provided and send it to the victim.
• The victim is then required to take a printout of the draft, sign it, and send it through post or courier to the address: Cyber Mitra Help Desk, Station House Officer, Cyber Crime Police Station, Commissioner’s Office, Basheerbagh, Hyderabad – 500029.
• While physical signatures are currently mandatory, a digital signature option is being explored for the future.

Alternatively, a drop box is available at the cybercrime police station, where victims can deposit the signed complaint copies. After the police receive the physical copy, a first information report (FIR) will be registered, and details will be sent to the victim through SMS.

Cases with losses below Rs 3 lakh will be registered as a “zero FIR” and transferred to the respective local Law and Order Police Station, while cases with bigger losses will be registered and investigated at the Cybercrime Police Station.

The helpdesk will operate from 8 am to 8 pm every day. Calls from C-Mitra will originate only from the landline number 040-4189-3111, and WhatsApp communications will strictly come from numbers starting with the 87126 series.

Staff will never ask for OTPs or demand money from the victims.

Time-saving initiative

Hyderabad Police, in a release, said that registering an FIR physically takes an average of three hours. The C-Mitra initiative is thus aimed at saving citizens’ time and allowing station staff to focus on investigation.

Additionally, they said that the rate of complaints received from the helpline and the portal that are converted to FIRs sits at 18 per cent. Through C-Mitra, the department aims to bring this rate to 100 per cent.