Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on February 28 inaugurated cyber crime police stations in 57 districts of the state from the Lok Bhavan. Before this, only 18 divisional headquarters in Uttar Pradesh had cyber crime police stations.
During the programme, chief minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that Uttar Pradesh was the first state where every district has a cyber police station. The chief minister's office of the Uttar Pradesh government tweeted a clipping of a news article published in The Times of India, making the same claim. (Archive link)
Yogi Adityanath's statement was amplified by several media outlets, including Hindustan, India Today Group's Good News Today, The Times of India, among others.
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Fact Check
A keyword search led us to an article by the Times of India from June 10, 2023. The article states that cyber police stations had been opened in all districts of Bihar. The additional director general of economic offences unit N H Khan mentioned that on June 9, 2023, 44 cyber police stations were inaugurated in all 38 districts of Bihar, including rail police, which would operate 24/7. A helpline number, 1930, was also provided for registering complaints related to cyber fraud. In other words, Bihar had already established cyber police stations in all districts.
The oldest article we found on the topic was published on November 3, 2016, in The Indian Express. It mentioned that Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated 34 cyber labs in all districts on Independence Day that year. A senior official from the home department stated that Maharashtra would be the first state in which each district would have a cyber police station.
An article dated June 25, 2022 by Mirror Now revealed that the Haryana government's home department had approved 21 new cyber police stations across the state to address relevant cases. Three new stations were operational in the South, Manesar, and West zones. Before this expansion, there was only one Cyber Crime Police Station in Sector 43, Gurugram.
Further research on the Times of India website led us to an article published on August 30, 2001. According to this report, Karnataka's Bengaluru had the first cyber crime police station in the country. Former Karnataka home minister Mallikarjun Kharge mentioned that this police station, operating under the IT Act of 2000, would handle cyber crime cases throughout the state.
To sum it up, Uttar Pradesh is not the first state in the country to have a cyber police station in every district. The claim made by chief minister Yogi Adityanath is false.
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