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Time of India
19-07-2025
- Time of India
Baranagar cops' cyber bus joins e-safety campaign to raise awareness
1 2 3 Kolkata: The Baranagar police station under the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate launched the "E-Prahari" programme to raise public awareness to tackle the growing menace of cybercrime through the use of technology and interactive outreach. The campaign was inaugurated on Saturday morning at Uddipa Housing on Kashinath Dutta Road in Sinthee, Kolkata, where nearly 100 residents gathered to participate in the event. The programme's key feature was the debut of "Cy-Buzz", a mobile cyber awareness bus equipped with audio-visual tools to educate people on cyber threats and digital safety. Speaking to TOI, Murlidhar Sharma, commissioner of police, Barrackpore Commissionerate, said, "The idea is to make cyber safety accessible and easy to understand. Through visual content and community interaction, we want people to be more alert and informed." You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata Officials confirmed that the E-Prahari programme will be expanded across other parts of the commissionerate in the coming weeks to build a more cyber-resilient community. Police sources revealed that Kolkata and its suburbs witnessed a sharp rise in cybercrime complaints in recent months. Victims—ranging from retired professionals to businesspeople—reportedly lost lakhs, sometimes even crores, after being duped by cyber fraudsters impersonating central investigative agencies and threatening "digital arrests". "Fraudsters are preying on fear and ignorance," said Commissioner Sharma. "We believe spreading awareness through this technology will empower citizens and act as a deterrent to cybercrime." The police urged the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious digital activity immediately.
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Bengal Police contests India Justice Report after state gets lowly 18th rank
1 2 3 Kolkata: The Bengal Police has contested the findings of the fourth India Justice Report (IJR) 2025, which ranked Bengal 18th among all states based on the performance of three key components of the criminal justice system: the judiciary, prisons, and legal aid. According to the report, Bengal's prison system came 11th, legal aid 15th, and police/judiciary 18th. "At the bottom tier, states such as Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bengal have largely maintained their positions with minor shifts," the IJR report stated. It also highlighted how the system continued to falter under systemic gaps, manpower shortages, and deep-rooted inequalities. It stated that the police force was critically understaffed, the judiciary was struggling to reflect diversity, and the prisons were overcrowded. The Bengal Police has appealed to the researchers not to restrict their focus "merely to input and process indicators". In a report circulated internally on Saturday, the Bengal Police attempted to empirically compare the IJR report with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2022 report. It claimed that a dual focus on institutional capacity and real-world performance metrics, such as crime resolution, access to justice, and public confidence, would provide a "more balanced, comprehensive, and actionable picture of justice delivery across states". "To assess the functional efficiency of these institutions, output and outcome indicators must be considered. In practice, better infrastructure or increased personnel does not automatically translate to fairness, functional efficiency, responsiveness or citizen-friendly behaviour by the police and legal system," said R Rajasekaran, ADG (training). "According to IJR, Bengal ranks 18th. But the NCRB Crime in India Report 2022 — the most recent crime data available — shows Bengal's crime rate stood at 194.9 per 100,000 population, significantly lower than several states ranked higher in the IJR, like Tamil Nadu (989.5), Maharashtra (278.4), and Karnataka (244.4)," he added. "The same logic applies to Kolkata, a city that has consistently been deemed the safest in India for three consecutive years by NCRB. The IPC Crime Rate (per 1 lakh population) in Kolkata is 78.2, the lowest in India compared to Chennai (173.5), Delhi (183.3), Hyderabad (266.7), Bengaluru (337.3), and Mumbai (376.3)," said IG (Swami Vivekananda State Police Academy) Murlidhar Sharma.
