mahendra limaye is one of the leading lawyers from the city in the field of cyber law while it is still in a nascent phase in the legal world the criminal activities in the virtual world are growing at a rapid pace limaye talks to toi about the challenges in prosecuting cyber criminals excerpts from the interviewq what sets cyber crime apart from the other criminal activities a today cyber crime has touched almost every human activity and still we are ignorant about it technology has engulfed entire mankind under its charisma with use of mobiles and internet becoming part and parcel of our lifestyle it is an important need in the urban areas right next to food shelter and clothing the crimes which makes use of computersmobilesinternet or information technology where electronic data interchange happens are termed as cyber crimes the distinguishing features between traditional crimes under the indian penal code ipc and cyber crimes can be classified under various factors like tools used for committing crimes methods of accessing the target loss caused to the victim damage to government property damage to general morality standards and so on traditional crimes are covered under ipc and technology based crimes are covered under special act known as information technology actq when it comes to prosecuting the accused what are the major challenges you face a cyber crime investigation and prosecution is still in a very nascent stage out of every hundred cyber crimes committed only 10 victims go to police station for reporting the same and out of those 10 reported crimes only 1 or 2 are booked under relevant sections of it act if this is stage of reporting of cyber crimes you can very well imagine how many cases currently go up for investigation and prosecution but the picture is not so gloomy for future as currently there are various initiatives by police department as well as judiciary under which these essential elements are being trained for fighting future challenges posed by cyber criminals the first cyber case in india was registered against executives of internet portal in 2004 the sentence was pronounced in 2012 and this gives hint of how much all the stake holders in cyber crime investigation and prosecution are serious about it another challenge is to convince the police officer that a cyber crime has been committed currently police are neither well versed with the sections of it act nor are they properly trained to carry out cyber crime investigation as well as evidence gathering procedure this lack of knowledge on all fronts is major hindrance in cyber crime investigation as well as prosecutionq do you believe that our current laws on cyber crime are not enough a under prevailing circumstances available provisions under existing it act are sufficient but considering the speed at which technology application is changing the i t act must be dynamic to these changes currently the major shortcoming is of awareness of provisions under it act we all are