With an aim to enhance the investigating capabilities of the police officials dealing in Cyber Crimes as desired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, the Cyber Crime Division of the Punjab Police in association with NGO Prajwala organised a one-day offline/online workshop on Cyber-Enabled Human Trafficking at office of Punjab State Cyber Crime Division in Mohali.
The Workshop was organised on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav. NGO Prajwala, a pioneering Anti-Trafficking organization working on the issue of sex trafficking and sex crimes, has assisted the police in rescuing over 27,500 women and girls from sex slavery in the last 27 years and facilitated their journey for recovery.
The three-hours session on the topic Cyber-Enabled Human Trafficking was physically attended by 50 officials working in Cyber Crime Units of Punjab, while over 100 officials of Punjab Police joined this workshop via Video Conference. The session started with an introduction to the issue of Human Trafficking in India and discussion on section 370 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), followed by a presentation on how various technologies are being exploited by traffickers in recruiting and exploiting victims.
During the workshop, demonstration of platforms and applications used by Law Enforcement Agencies to counter Cyber Crime and Cyber enabled Human Trafficking was given to the participants. Case studies where technology was used to traffic victims, and some International case studies related to Cyber enabled Human Trafficking were also presented during the workshop.
The presentations were followed by Focus Group Discussion with the participants at State Cyber Crime Division, who are already working on these crimes. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Cyber Crime V Neeraja, who joined the workshop virtually, said that the Cyber crime prevention against women & children (CCPWC) working at the State Cyber Crime Division has been dealing with cases related to cyber crimes against women & children on top priority.
State Cyber Crime Division will also be enhancing their capacity by setting up Cyber Patrolling Unit to monitor crimes in the cyberspace, especially against women and children, she said, while adding that Cyber Crime & Technical Investigation Units operational in districts were already dealing with Cyber Crime including Cyber Tiplines.
The ADGP said that such crimes can be reported anonymously on the portal of National Cyber Crime (NCRP) at www.cybercrime.gov.in. Meanwhile, during the workshop, case studies and the legal practices prevalent in other countries were discussed and methods to track human trafficking in Cyber Space were provided with case studies.