New Delhi: In a significant move to bolster India’s fight against cybercrime, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the launch of the e-Zero FIR initiative under the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a wing of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The initiative, currently rolled out as a pilot project in Delhi, aims to drastically reduce response time in tackling financial cyber fraud by automatically converting complaints into FIRs for high-value cases.
In a tweet on Monday, Shah said, “The MHA’s Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) introduced the new e-Zero FIR initiative to nab any criminal with unprecedented speed. Launched as a pilot project for Delhi, the new system will automatically convert cyber financial crimes filed at NCRP or 1930 to FIRs, initially above the threshold limit of Rs 10 lakh. The new system, which will drive investigations swiftly cracking down on cybercriminals, will soon be extended to the entire nation.”
Fast and automated
The e-Zero FIR initiative is designed to fast-track the legal and investigative processes involved in cybercrime cases, particularly those involving financial fraud. Currently, victims of cybercrime must often go through time-consuming procedures to register a formal complaint and get an FIR lodged.
Under the new system, any cyber financial crime reported through the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) or the cybercrime helpline 1930—and meeting the Rs 10 lakh threshold—will be automatically converted into an FIR without needing to visit a police station. This automated mechanism aims to initiate quicker law enforcement action, thereby improving the chances of freezing fraudulent transactions and catching culprits in real time.
