In order to upgrade the skills of its personnel dealing with cyber crime investigation, the Andhra Pradesh police have proposed to establish cyber labs in Hyderabad and Cyberabad Commissionerates with the support of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Currently, one cyber lab is being operated at the CID here. Now, proposals have been sent to the MHA to establish two additional cyber labs in Hyderabad and Cyberabad commissionerates, Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crimes) U Ramamohan told PTI.

"The proposed cyber labs will be added to the existing cyber police stations in Hyderabad and Cyberabad. Proposals have been sent to the MHA and we are awaiting their nod, which is likely to happen soon," Ramamohan said.

The objective is to provide technical inputs and support to tackle cyber crime and impart training to police, judiciary and finance sector personnel, who handle cyber offences and modules, he explained.

Further, to cope with the increasing incidence of cyber offences that saw registration of 74 cases in 2011 up from 54 cases in 2010 at the Cyber Cell of Crime Investigation Department (CID) alone, four more Cyber Crime Police Stations have been planned in the state, a senior police official said.

These cyber police stations will come up at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Warangal and Tirupati by the year end, so that victims need not come all the way to Hyderabad to lodge cyber crime complaints, the CID official said.

The Cyber Crime police station under Hyderabad Commissionerate recorded 74 cases of different cyber offences till November last, as compared to 63 in 2010, and at Cyberabad Commissionerate there were 41 cases, as compared to the 20 during the same period in the previous year.

Similarly, the cyber crime unit in Visakhapatnam registered 110 cyber crime cases, up from 31, while 53 cases were registered against 29 in 2010 at different cyber units across the state.