Filing cyber complaint in India
- The very first step to file a cyber crime complaint is to register a written complaintwith the cyber crime cell of the city are currently in. According to the IT Act, a cyber crime comes under the purview of global jurisdiction. This means that a cyber crime complaint can be registered with any of the cyber cells in India, irrespective of the place where it was originally committed.
- When filing the cyber crime complaint, you need to provide your name, contact details, and address for mailing. You need to address the written complaint to the Head of the Cyber Crime Cellof the city where you are filing the cyber crime complaint.
- In case you are a victim of online harassment, a legal counsel can be approached to assist you with reporting it to the police station. Additionally, you may be asked to provide certain documents with the complaint. This would, however, depend on the nature of the crime.
- Register a Cyber Crime FIR: If you do not have access to any of the cyber cells in India, you can file a First Information Report (FIR) at the local police station. In case your complaint is not accepted there, you can approach the Commissioneror the city’s Judicial Magistrate.
- Certain cyber crime offenses come under the Indian Penal Code. You can register a cyber crime FIR at the nearest local police station to report them. It is mandatory under Section 154, Code of Criminal Procedure,for every police officer to record the information/complaint of an offense, irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the crime was committed.
- Most of the cyber crimes that are covered under the Indian Penal Code are classified as cognizable offenses. A cognizable offense is the one in which a warrant is not requiredfor an arrest or investigation. In this case, a police officer is bound to record a Zero FIRfrom the complainant. He must then forward it to the police station under the jurisdiction of the place where the offense was committed.
- Zero FIRoffers some solace to victims of cases that require immediate attention/investigation as it avoids wasting time in enlisting the offense on police records.
For Filing Complaints Related to Social Media Cyber Crimes:
- Apart from the above steps, one must also register a complaint on the corresponding platform where the offense was committed. The steps for the same are clearly stated on every social media platform.
- Most of the social media platformshave a clear procedure in place for reporting any abuse or other nasty offenses. You must make sure that you report such activitiesin the very initial stages of its occurrence. This shall enable the concerned social media platform to take immediate steps for blocking further activities and protecting the privacy of your personal information.
- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube have a strict and clear redressal mechanismto protect its users from online abuse and cyber crimes. Make sure that you do your groundwork on their guidelines for reporting an abuse without waiting for an abuse to actually happen!
Registering an Online Cyber Crime Complaint
At present, the Ministry of Home Affairs is in the process of launching a centralized online cyber crime registration portal that would eliminate the need to visit a police station for the same. However, the Cyber Crime Cell of Delhi Police and Indore have already launched an online portal for educating the masses on cyber crimes and also accepting online cyber crime complaints. Following are the links to file a cyber crime complaint in India through an online portal:
- http://www.cybercelldelhi.in/
- http://www.indorepolice.org/cyber-crime.php
- https://cybercrime.gov.in/
Documents Required to File a Cyber Crime Complaint
It could be quite hassling to maintain composure when you end up becoming a victim of a cyber crime or find your loved ones going through that ordeal. What could get all the more frustrating is gathering the many documents required to file a cyber crime complaint? Most victims do not have the faintest idea of what documents are required to file a cyber crime complaint! This section shall save you the trouble of browsing through scores of Google results to understand what you would need to file a cyber crime complaint in India. Here’s the checklist.
For Email Based Complaints
- A written brief about the offense
- A copy of the suspected email as received by the original receiver (forwarded emails should be avoided)
- The complete header of the suspected email
- Hard and soft copies of the alleged email and its header
- Ensure that the soft copy is provided in a CD-R
For Social Media Based Complaints
- A copy or screenshot showing the alleged profile/content
- A screenshot of the URL of the alleged content
- Hard and soft copies of the alleged content
- Ensure that the soft copy is provided in a CD-R
The increase in the internet usage over the last decade has resulted in increasing cyber crimes and cases of online cheating. It can be quite confusing for a cyber crime victim to understand the steps to register a cyber crime FIR. In the face of an adversity, it is essential to know how to file a cyber crime complaint in India? And this blog shall serve this purpose.
Article By Kosha Doshi
Thank you for this useful article got to know so much better about it
This article is very useful thank you so much.
This article is surely very much needed in these times especially because lot of incidents go unreported because people dont know the procedures that they have to follow to have justice and i think the author did an excellent job in classifying the type of complaints so that it gives an easy understanding to the user.
This article is very informative in order to file a cyber complaint. It is very helpful in nurturing society.
This article is beneficial for every online user. The proper segregation makes it easier to grasp the content. Owing to the lack of awareness among the people, an easy to understand procedure for filing a complaint is very useful.
This article provides essential information on how to approach authorities and concerned departments which deals with helping victims and providing justice if faced any type of cyber crime.
Thank you for providing essential information about how to file a cyber complaint in India .. got to know about the details how to approach for a cyber complaint.
This article felt a little raw? The sequence of information could have been managed better. But in overall its a good article , really helpful and informative.
Most of the victims of cyber crime do not get the complain registered because they don’t understand the intensity of crime and further spread of such crimes which may happen as a result of unreported crimes. To take criminals down, it is of utmost importance that maximum number of crimes gets reported. In order to achieve that objective, the government has made an attempt to make the procedure as simple as possible and easily available as you have to just go on the website and register the complaint.
The author has compiled data from authentic sources and the information is apt and of utmost use to the readers.
This article is a helping hand to those who ever hunt by cyber crime and because of lack of knowledge they are not able to file a complaint.
The article is informative, however, hinderances to filing the complaint should also have been mentioned. For instance, most women find it difficult to file a complaint and sometimes they are also scared off by the officers in the name of reputation and the shame that the victim has to face in front of the society.
This is of utmost importance as a layman doesn’t know how to file a complaint against such cyber crimes. Many times they don’t report such issues as they think that the procedure is really complex, but this article is really informative and gives the detailed knowledge as to how these complaints can be filed. This article is very beneficial for everyone.
A very useful article and informs audience about the whole procedure.
The risks of cyber crime can be mitigated and reduced. The impact can be reduced by making systems more resilient, detecting it earlier etc. You can plan ahead for how to respond to an attack. You can have excellent security, but the risk is never zero.
A simple language article which helps in understanding for the readers.
This article is very useful. It informs the readers about their rights and the whole procedure to file a complaint against the offender.
These kind of articles are a surprise to come by. This is a basic information that every internet user should know. Many are in the dark about these procedures. I am glad that I could come across this article.
Many people don’t know how to react or what to do when cybercrime takes place with them. It is a very informative article.
Very useful article.
This article is very informative in order to file a cyber complaint.
Great information
This article is very helpful and very nice and what I most like about this article that it is self explanatory and we don’t need to take refrence from other places to understand this topic and has explained the whole procedure.
Very helpful article providing all the details and procedure of reporting of a cybercrime.
An essential article as many complaints left unregistered because many people are unaware about the process of different kinds of cyber crimes.
This article is informative one and useful one
Many people who are victims of cyber crime do not file complaint or report the crime because they are unaware of the procedure they have to follow. This article is much needed so as to help such people and at the same time provide information to others.
This article is very helpful for the people who don’t know how to file a complaint against the cyber crimes. It is well synchronized. Also, there is an online portal for filing a complaint which can be made anonymously also.
The article is very much helpful that it explains about filing cyber crime in India . By this article people in India can be aware or can learn how to file cyber complaint in India .