Enforcement Impediments in Prosecuting Digital Identity Theft in India

Abstract India saw 101,928 cybercrime cases filed in 2024. Data on identity theft cases filed with an FIR and prosecuted or otherwise resolved are scarce. This paper uses agency data and a survey of practitioners to examine patterns of identity theft case resolution. According to NCRB data, identity theft cases are often filed alongside cheating cases and recorded under that more serious offense. Trends in cybercrime motivated by fraud, which includes most identity theft cases, are examined nationally. Data on Section 66C of the Information Technology Act, 2000, are examined for 19 major cities. Higher State filing rates were correlated with lower arrest rates. A survey of 220 investigating officers and 80 public prosecutors found that higher agency preparedness increased the case outcomes that officers expected in identity theft cases, while digital-evidence and structural impediments reduced them. These relationships were confirmed using a latent-variable model. Perceived seriousness and own-agency responsibility were not related to expected case outcomes. Readiness for the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, was mixed. Lack of agency capacity, rather than legal barriers, appears to be the main barrier to resolving identity theft cases.