In the backdrop of Speakasia fraud that allegedly runs into several crores, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the police to consider taking the assistance of a forensic expert to crack the economic crimes stemming from the internet.

"We are anxious about such internet crimes. People invest their hard earned money only to lose it. Police is also being negligent. There should be regular survey of such web sites," Justice Ranjana Desai, heading the division bench of the Bombay High Court, remarked while hearing a PIL on the Speakasia fraud case.

Dr Rukmini Krishnamurthy, former director of the state-run Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory, appeared before the high court and said she was ready to offer her expertise to police in tracking and curbing mushrooming of bogus companies on internet.

To which the bench directed the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) to hold a meeting with the forensic expert within two weeks and then decide whether it wants her assistance.

The bench also observed that the police, who do not even have a proper cyber forensic lab to detect and prevent such economic offences, should take the help of private people who are experts in this regard.

The court remarked that even after it had asked the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to mention what steps it proposes to tackle such offences there have been more advertisements coming up in newspapers asking people to invest in lakhs in schemes of bogus companies.

Speak Asia, a Singapore-based online survey company, is alleged to have cheated people of crores of rupees by promising them huge return in exchange for taking part and investing in its surveys.