Lack of timely removal of obscene online material causes embarrassment to victims: Ghosh

Kolkata, Aug 24 (PTI) Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of Calcutta High Court on Sunday said that in case of cyber crimes related to uploading of obscene materials in social media and internet sites, there is a dearth in timely removal of these, leading to embarrassment for the victims.

He said that, so far as financial cyber crime is concerned, the investigating officers can trace the money trail up to a certain level.

"But so far as removal of obscene materials from social media and other internet sites is concerned, there is large dearth so far as the investigating agency is concerned," Justice Ghosh said at the announcement of eastern India's first post graduate MA/MSc course in Criminology and Criminal Justice to be conducted by the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS).

Justice Ghosh said that the victims are facing embarrassment and consequences of these not being removed or blocked by the concerned service providers, with the investigators of such cases not getting to reach the originators or the service providers.

Justice Ghosh said that those who are not acquainted with the present banking system are facing substantial difficulties.

He also said that at present the adjudicators are faced with differences in post-mortem opinion and forensic expert opinion also which are sometimes inconclusive.

He said that complaints are being received by the courts regarding reports of post-mortems regularly.

Justice Ghosh said that although this postgraduate course is in criminology and criminal justice, stress has been laid on forensic science in it.

"Forensic science as a part of criminology is required both at the investigation and the trial stage," he said.

He expressed hope that the new two-year post-graduate course, the first in eastern India and the first by any national law university, will benefit all.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Ananya Banerjee said there is no separate statute on victimology, but "we do have a separate statute pertaining to the concept of victim compensation." She said that it is enlightening that the concept of victimology has been incorporated in the new courses, "addressing the trauma, the agony, the pain of the victim, along with their restorative procedure to enhance and to provide them with the opportunity to continue with their life." She said that cybercrime and forensic technology need synergy and are interdependent.

West Bengal Police's Director General (Cyber crime) Sanjay Singh said that cyber crime is like a tsunami in India and that the scale is "unprecedented".

He said that there is a national crime reporting portal in which any citizen can complain at 1093, maintaining that the moment a complaint comes, the first task is to block the flow of money.

"In a typical cyber crime, the money will be transferred through up to a thousand accounts in maybe 20 states of India and the number of cities can be 70 or 80," he said, describing the enormity of the scale of such crimes.

He said that the whole idea of it is to confuse the investigating agencies, and that is the purpose of money laundering schemes.

Singh said that in West Bengal alone, around 400 complaints of cyber fraud have been received as of August with the amount cheated being between Rs three to four crore every day.

"The scale of the crime overshadows everything else," he said.

"Annual loss as per records in India is around Rs 30,000 crore, but unofficially it could be many times more," he said. PTI AMR RG