CITY
Police mulls cyber cafe guidelines
By Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI, Aug 3 – Assam Police might soon follow the footsteps of its Mumbai counterparts to keep a strong vigil on the activities of the cyber café owners in the State by issuance of strict regulatory guidelines.
The Criminal Investigation Department(CID) of the Assam Police, which deals with cyber crime cases in the State, is on the verge of approving a set of regulations, which would be identical with the one the Mumbai Police is having currently, to keep a tab on the cyber cafes.
This comes after a leading telecom company in the city was issued threat of explosion over e-mail and that too from a cyber café situated at city’s Paltan Bazar area. Some of the recent intelligence inputs gathered by the security agencies, too, have confirmed the use of cyber space by the jehadi activists in the State, especially through the cyber cafes in the city.
Well-placed sources in the police department told The Assam Tribune that the orders would soon be issued to the city-based cyber cafes and later on the same would be replicated in other parts of the State as well.
“There has been a spurt in the use of cyber space by the extremists groups and most of the time the offenders remain untraced owing to unavailability of any specific records with the cyber café owner,” the sources rued.
“This has forced us to mull over the need for enforcement of strict regulatory guidelines for the cyber café owners in the State, which has become a dire necessity in the present context,” said a senior Assam Police official, adding that if required the department would also seek the help of Mumbai Police for its effective implementation.
Under the new provisions, the cyber café owners would have to maintain a proper record of all its customers. The cyber café owners would also be liable to check the identity proof of its customers.
“In a recent instance, where a leading telecom company was issued a threat note via e-mail, though the police did manage to track down the cyber café from which the e-mail was sent after six days, the person, however, could not be traced,” the official maintained.
The official further stated that the police is also contemplating to launch a crackdown on cyber café owners, who are running it without proper registration.