By Avijit Biswas

Bhagalpur: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently constituted Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Teams (JCCTs) to enhance coordination among states and union territories for combating cybercrime. One of these teams, JCCT-11, has been established for the Jamtara region in Jharkhand.

The JCCTs aim to ensure effective inter-state investigation assistance, intelligence-led operations, criminal profiling, data sharing, and cooperation on all aspects of cybercrime and cyber threats. These teams were created in response to the increasing prevalence of cybercrime in certain regions.

JCCT-11 will cover the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh. Jamtara, a district in Jharkhand near the border with West Bengal, has been notorious for organized cyber fraud activities. Numerous cybercriminals from Jamtara have been involved in cybercrimes across different states, leading to several arrests.

The leadership of each JCCT will rotate among the member states and union territories. Currently, Jharkhand will head JCCT-11.

Other JCCTs and their respective regions include:

• JCCT-1 (Mewat Region): Covering Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, currently headed by Delhi.
• JCCT-III (Ahmedabad Region): Including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu, currently headed by Gujarat.
• JCCT-IV (Hyderabad Region): Comprising Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan, currently headed by Telangana.
• JCCT-V (Chandigarh Region): Including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the union territories of Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh, currently headed by Chandigarh.
• JCCT-VI (Visakhapatnam Region): Covering Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand, and the union territories of Puducherry, Lakshadweep Islands, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, currently headed by Andhra Pradesh.
• JCCT-VII (Guwahati Region): Comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Sikkim, currently headed by Assam.

The MHA has taken various steps to support states and union territories in their efforts to combat cybercrime. One significant initiative is the establishment of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which provides a framework and ecosystem for law enforcement agencies to handle cybercrime comprehensively and collaboratively.

The I4C has seven verticals addressing different aspects of cybercrime, with JCCT being one of these verticals.