Pune: Highlighting a significant increase in cybercrime and a growing backlog of pending cases, MLA Hemant Rasane has appealed to the Maharashtra government to establish five additional cyber police stations in Pune—one in each police zone of the city.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Rasane emphasized the heavy workload faced by Pune’s sole cyber police station, which is struggling to keep up with the surge in digital offenses.
This request comes in the wake of a major police operation in Kharadi, where authorities uncovered a fake call center involved in scamming American citizens through fraudulent “digital arrest” threats, coercing victims to pay via gift cards. This case highlights the growing complexity and frequency of cyber fraud in Pune.
Official data shows that the city recorded 10,692 cybercrime complaints in 2022, which rose to 11,974 in 2023 and further to 12,954 in 2024. However, judicial closures have lagged behind, with only 6,204 cases closed in 2022, 7,069 in 2023, and just 1,739 cases resolved so far in 2024, leaving a large number of cases still unresolved.
Rasane urged that setting up dedicated cyber police stations in each zone would facilitate faster and more specialized investigations. He also proposed hiring trained personnel, increasing officer deployment, and adopting e-office technology to modernize Pune’s cybercrime investigation capabilities.
