Cyber forensic labs, which will facilitate identification, seizure, acquisition, authentication, analysis, documentation and preservation of digital evidence, will come up shortly in the capital and the steel city.

East Singhbhum SSP Anoop Birtharay said an MoU had been inked between Jharkhand Police and a Delhi-based agency for setting up as many as five such labs in the state.

“These will be in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Hazaribagh. The first lab will be in Jamshedpur and it will come up beside the cyber thana in Bistupur by the end of the month,” he said.

Sources said the government had released Rs 30 lakh for the project in Jamshedpur.

Cyber crime has become a fad across urban centres in Jharkhand in recent times. From cloning bank cards to stealing money from savings accounts, cyber thugs are making hay while law enforcement agencies are fumbling for ways to curb the menace.

“On an average, 20 cases of ATM fraud is reported in the city every month. Victims lodge complaints with the thana concerned and a case is finally registered at the cyber police station, which was opened in March last year. But, in the absence of infrastructure support and expertise, not much headway is made,” the district police chief conceded.

This is where cyber forensics will come in handy.

“Tech-savvy officers will run the lab to curb cyber crimes and economic offences. Earlier, PAN cards, bank cards, mobile phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets were sent outside the city for forensic tests. Once the lab becomes functional, we can do the same tests locally,” the SSP said.

The cyber forensic lab will allow police to retrieve photos, messages, emails, call details and other data deleted from mobile phones. The DVR analyser machine will help clearly read hazy photos and registration numbers. Password cracking tools will also be available.

Birtharay added that once the cyber forensic lab was up and running, they would get more police officers trained.

A senior officer posted at Bistupur cyber thana said they were capable of reaching criminals who use mobile phones to make extortion calls. “But, we are not equipped to zero in on individuals or gangs that siphon off money from bank accounts either by hacking passwords or obtaining the same through phishing and other such fraudulent means,” he said.