Try & recover at least 50% of money lost to cyber fraud: Lalbazar to cops
Times of India | 3 December 2025
Kolkata: The rising trend of losing money to cyber fraud has prompted top cops at Lalbazar to instruct all its cyber cells to "pull up their socks" and improve the recovery rate.
Analysing each case, especially those where the loss was substantial, top bosses led by an additional CP pointed out that 20%-30% recoveries have become the "standard" and asked cops to try and recover at least 40%-50% of lost money in high-value cases. Recognising the importance of the issue, a separate recovery cell had been established at the Lalbazar cyber police station to recover hard-earned money lost to cyber fraud. However, the results, though heartening, are still below expectations.
Additionally, the cyber cells in each division were also instructed to actively work on recovering money. The top officers believe that the benefits of these efforts have only started to be realised and will show by next year. Commissioner Manoj Verma, along with the police brass, indicated in Aug that returning money to the victims was on top of their agenda.
According to sources, an average of Rs 10 crore-Rs 22 crore was lost to frauds in Kolkata each month in 2024. Currently, this amount has dipped to about Rs 15 crore per month. A large percentage of this is estimated to be cybercrimes linked to online investments, fraud hotel bookings, KYC frauds and digital arrests. Cops and cybercrime experts believe that the coordination between cops and financial institutions, as well as their presentation in courts, needed to be worked on. "We have been set certain standards and asked to meet them," recalled a cop who attended the meeting.
To put things into perspective, the police brass mentioned in the meeting that earlier, 9.5% of the lost money could be recovered until 2024. The recovery rate has increased in the past 11 months, with one month even yielding a 30% recovery. On an average, about Rs 1,200 crore are lost annually to cyber fraud in the state.
"This can be considered a significant success since 2024. However, we have drawn up plans to take this recovery rate to at least 50% in the coming few years," said an officer. Upon taking charge as the CP of Kolkata Police, Verma actively worked on curbing the rise of cyber fraud. He has been emphasising the importance of recovering money in almost every monthly crime conference of Kolkata Police. He revamped the cyber police station of Kolkata Police and even set up a dedicated recovery unit.