DGP calls for greater awareness among public to prevent cybercrimes like digital arrest

The Andhra Pradesh police is facing challenges in controlling cybercrime, ganja transportation and on crime against women, said Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta.

While the public lost about ₹815 crore, police froze ₹98 crore in banks and refunded ₹3 crore to the victims in cyber offences, the DGP explained.

Giving the crime data for the year 2025 at a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Harish Kumar Gupta said the overall crime decreased by 6.17% in the year.

Asked about the challenges for the police in the State, the State police chief said that checking cybercrimes, ganja transportation and crime against women and children were the major challenges.

“Police handled over 62,000 complaints related to cybercrimes and registered 2,332 cases in 2025. Regarding digital arrest cases, accused were operating from China and other countries and were exchanging money into cryptocurrency, which has become tough for the police to recover,” the DGP said.

He stressed the need for creating awareness among the public to prevent offences like digital arrest.

Narcotics cases declined to 1,727 this year, as against 1,875 in 2024. Police arrested 9,478 accused, seized 1,525 vehicles used for smuggling ganja and other drugs and attached properties worth about ₹9.11 crore.

The Elite Anti-Narcotics Group for Law Enforcement (EAGLE) head and Inspector General of Police Ake Ravi Krishna said that surveillance has been stepped up on inter-state ganja peddling gangs operating in A.P.

“We are coordinating with the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANTF) of other States and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to check smuggling of ganja and drugs. Our teams are moving in other States to check ganja transportation,” he added..

Regarding bodily offences, the DGP said that murder cases declined to 856 as against 772 in 2024, and kidnap cases came down to 645 from 768. Detection in property offences was 56% and the recovery was about 55% in 2025, Mr. Harish Kumar Gupta said.

Crimes against women decreased to 16,347, as against 16,994 in the previous year. There was a significant reduction in rape, gang rape and murder, assault on women and other crimes, the DGP said adding that POCSO Act cases reduced by about 11%.

However, there was a rise in economic offences. In all, 8,034 cases were registered in 2025, while the last year's figure stood at 7,667.

The AP Police Department is planning to organise a two-day workshop for IPS officers in January 2026, which will focus on strengthening structural engineering, technology, skill development and other techniques, the DGP said.

IGP (Operations) Ch. Srikanth, AP Forensics Director G. Pala Raju, DIG (Law and Order) K. Fakeerappa, IGP (Sports) K.V. Mohan Rao, DIG (Administration) R.N. Ammireddy and other officers were present.