Over 1,600 people were arrested for cyber crimes registered under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and under sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2011, the government on Friday said.

"As per the crime data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 154, 178, 288, 799 and 1,184 persons were arrested for cyber crimes registered under IT Act, 2000 during 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively," Minister of State for Communications Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

A total of 429, 195, 263, 394 and 446 persons were arrested for cyber crimes registered under sections of IPC relating to cyber crime cases during 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively, he added.

The IT Act, 2000 enables detection/tracking of cyber crimes and punishment to perpetrators, thus providing a legal framework to adrress the issues arising out of such crimes in cyber space.

"As per the crime data maintained by NCRB, a total of 217, 288, 420, 966 and 1,791 cyber crime cases were registered under IT Act, 2000 during the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively, thereby showing a rising trend," he said.

These cases pertained to tampering computer source documents, hacking, obscene publication/transmission in electronic form and failure of compliance/order of certifying Authority, among other reasons.

"In addition, a total of 339, 176, 276, 356 and 422 cyber crime cases were reported under sections of IPC during 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively," Deora said, adding that these related to false electronic evidence, destruction of electronic evidence and forgery.

Responding to another query, Deora said based on the request of law enforcement agencies, the Competent Authority under section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 had issued direction for blocking of 310 webpages/URLs carrying anti-social, anti-national and hateful content.

"The government is in regular dialogue with the intermediaries, including social networking sites for effective and efficient disablement of such content," he added.