1,054 Crore Lost, 1.94 Crore Recovered: Cybercrime Alert In Madhya Pradesh

Residents of Madhya Pradesh have lost a whopping Rs 1,054 crore to cyber frauds in the past four years, but state police have been able to recover less than 0.2 per cent, underlining the gap between the alarming rise in cybercrimes and the state's capabilities to prevent them and crack down on those involved.

Between May 1, 2021, and July 13, 2025, reported cases of phishing, OTP frauds, job scams, fake customer care traps and social media impersonation led to residents losing a total of Rs 1,054 crore. Police action in these cases managed to recover just Rs 1.94 crore -- 0.18 per cent of the total stolen amount.

The shocking revelation came to light in the state home department's response to Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh's question in the Assembly. Slamming the state government's failure to check such frauds, the MLA said the current situation is a "cyber emergency". "The Prime Minister urges people to go digital, but the state cannot even retrieve one percent of what was stolen," he said.

A deep dive reveals numbers pointing to a systemic breakdown. During this period, a sum of Rs 105 crore was frozen in suspect accounts, but only a fraction of this could be recovered.

A total of 1,193 FIRs related to cyber frauds have been registered in the state since 2020, but charge sheets have been filed in only 585 cases. The remaining are pending, under investigation, or dismissed.

Social media misuse has also emerged as the biggest avenue of digital crime, accounting for 37 per cent to 53 per cent of all cybercrime cases in the last four years. In 2022, out of 1,021 cybercrime cases, 542 involved social media abuse. The trend continued in 2023 with 428 of 927 cases and in 2024 with 396 of 1,082 cybercrime cases. In 2025 so far, 242 out of 511 cases are linked to cyberbullying, sextortion, impersonation and blackmail through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The youth remain the biggest targets of such crime. In 2022, 70 per cent of all cybercrime victims were youngsters. The number rose to 76 per cent in 2023, slightly declined to 65 per cent in 2024, and stands at 67 per cent for 2025. But justice remains elusive. The resolution rate of cases has steadily declined from 70 per cent in 2022 to 66 per cent in 2023, to 47 per cent in 2024, to 27 per cent in 2025.

According to the state government's reply to a question by first-time BJP MLA Riti Pathak, banking fraud and other similar frauds constitute the second-biggest chunk of cybercrime cases.

The numbers indicate that the state's cybercrime control apparatus is no match for the speed, scale and sophistication of digital criminals. Without a sharp focus on training, upgrading resources and accountability, the gap between crimes committed and justice delivered is only going to widen.