Over 12,000 e-Zero FIRs were registered against cyber financial fraud across 18 states and Union Territories in 2025, the Union Home Ministry informed the Lok Sabha. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar shared the data in a written reply to a question from MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal. Delhi recorded the highest number of e-Zero FIRs at 6,115, followed by Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Rajasthan.
What Is an e-Zero FIR?
An e-Zero FIR is a First Information Report that is registered electronically through a central system, without the complainant having to first visit a police station in the area where the crime took place. The “zero” refers to the Zero FIR mechanism, under which a complaint can be lodged at any police station in the country, regardless of where the offence occurred. The station that receives the complaint is not required to have territorial jurisdiction over the case.
The concept of the Zero FIR is not new. It has long been recognised by the Supreme Court of India, which has held that a police station that receives information about a cognisable offence cannot refuse to register an FIR merely on the ground that the crime happened outside its jurisdiction. The word “zero” indicates that no particular police station has been assigned the case at the time of registration, and the FIR is later transferred to the station with the appropriate jurisdiction.
What the e-Zero FIR adds is automation. Instead of a victim travelling from one police station to another, the system registers the FIR digitally the moment a qualifying complaint is filed online, and then routes it automatically to the correct territorial cyber crime police station.
The Three-Day Conversion Rule
An e-Zero FIR is not the final document. Under the rules, the complainant must visit the jurisdictional cyber crime police station within three days of filing the complaint to authenticate the details and get the e-Zero FIR converted into a regular FIR. This step is required under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, the new criminal procedure law that replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure on 1 July 2024.
The legal basis for electronic registration lies in Section 173(1) of the BNSS, which provides that information about the commission of a cognisable offence can be given orally or by electronic communication to the officer in charge of a police station, irrespective of the area in which the offence was committed.
How the e-Zero FIR System Works
The e-Zero FIR initiative was launched as a pilot project for Delhi on 19 May 2025 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. It was designed to close a crucial gap in cybercrime enforcement. For years, victims of online financial fraud reported their losses on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) or the toll-free helpline 1930, but only a small fraction of these complaints ever got converted into FIRs. Without an FIR, police lacked the legal authority to freeze suspect accounts and investigate the crime, and by the time a complaint worked its way through the system, the money was long gone.
Under the new mechanism, a complaint filed on the NCRP or through helpline 1930 that crosses a financial loss threshold set by the state or UT is automatically converted into an e-Zero FIR. The threshold was initially set at ₹10 lakh for the Delhi pilot, but individual states and UTs are free to choose their own limits. Tamil Nadu, for example, has set its threshold at ₹1 lakh.
The automatic conversion is made possible by integrating three separate digital systems:
- The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and helpline 1930, where citizens file complaints
- The state or UT’s e-Crime Police Station, which registers the e-Zero FIR
- The National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), the national backbone for police data
Once registered, the e-Zero FIR is immediately routed to the territorial cyber crime police station that holds jurisdiction over the case. The instant registration gives investigating agencies the legal authority to place a lien on suspect bank accounts, which blocks the onward transfer of the defrauded funds. The complainant then has three days to visit the police station and convert the e-Zero FIR into a regular FIR.
Analogy · Emergency Route to a Police Case Expand analogy
Filing a cyber fraud complaint was earlier like reaching a hospital but waiting for an ambulance that never arrived. The e-Zero FIR system is the ambulance that reaches the victim instantly, stabilises the situation by freezing the money, and then takes the case to the right hospital, meaning the correct police station, for full treatment.
What the Data Shows
The figures shared in Parliament cover the period since the system began operating in each state or UT, which is why the totals differ widely. Delhi, which started in May 2025, leads with 6,115 e-Zero FIRs. Chandigarh follows with 4,174, registered since November 2025. Together, the two account for more than 10,000 of the over 12,000 total.
State-Wise Breakup
| State or UT | e-Zero FIRs | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 6,115 | May 2025 |
| Chandigarh | 4,174 | November 2025 |
| Uttarakhand | 552 | March 2026 |
| Goa | 446 | January 2026 |
| Rajasthan | 251 | January 2026 |
| Assam | 223 | June 2026 |
| Haryana | 165 | June 2026 |
| Maharashtra | 131 | July 2026 |
| Tamil Nadu | 39 | July 2026 |
| Bihar | 12 | July 2026 |
The other states and UTs that have implemented the system, including Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat, Tripura, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have reported lower numbers so far. The varying dates show that the rollout is staggered, with states joining at different times as they set up their e-Crime Police Stations and integrate their systems.
Why the System Matters
The e-Zero FIR system attacks the single biggest weakness in India’s fight against cyber financial fraud: the gap between a complaint being filed and an FIR being registered. Cyber fraud is inherently cross-jurisdictional. A victim in one city is often defrauded through a bank account opened in another, and the money can pass through several accounts within minutes. The old system, in which a victim had to physically locate the right police station, played directly into the fraudster’s hands.
By registering an FIR instantly, the system allows banks and law enforcement to freeze accounts during what investigators call the “golden hour”, the brief window immediately after a fraud in which the stolen funds can still be recovered. Early reporting makes recovery dramatically more likely, and the automatic FIR gives the police the legal footing to act immediately rather than waiting for paperwork.
The system also shifts the burden of coordination from the victim to the state. The e-Zero FIR is registered at a central e-Crime Police Station and then transferred automatically to the correct territorial station, eliminating duplicate data entry and jurisdictional disputes. This matters for a national digital payments ecosystem in which UPI alone processes billions of transactions every month, and where the risk of fraud scales with every new digital user.
The Bigger Cybercrime Picture
The e-Zero FIR is one layer of a wider institutional response built around the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C). I4C was approved by the Union Cabinet in October 2018 with an outlay of around ₹415.86 crore, became operational in January 2020, and was elevated to an attached office of the Ministry of Home Affairs in July 2024. It coordinates India’s response to cybercrime, which falls under police and public order, State subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
The scale of the problem the system faces is enormous. Between 2021 and 2025, more than 65.89 lakh financial fraud complaints were filed on the NCRP, reporting losses of over ₹55,050 crore. The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS), which runs the 1930 helpline, helped save more than ₹11,158 crore across over 32.80 lakh complaints as of 30 June 2026.
I4C and the Institutional Architecture
Beyond the NCRP and 1930, I4C operates a network of supporting tools. The Samanvaya platform serves as a data repository and analytics system for law enforcement agencies, and its Pratibimb module maps the locations of criminals and crime infrastructure to give jurisdictional officers a live picture of fraud networks. A Suspect Registry, launched in September 2024, pools identifiers of cyber criminals shared by banks and financial institutions to detect repeat offenders. Seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams (JCCTs) operate in known fraud hotspots including Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Visakhapatnam, and Guwahati.
Two additional tools are aimed directly at the money trail. The Mule Account Hunter software, developed jointly with the Reserve Bank of India, helps banks identify and clean up mule accounts, which are bank accounts opened and rented out to move stolen money. The Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) brings together representatives of major banks, payment aggregators, telecom operators, and state law enforcement agencies on a single platform for real-time cooperation. A Cyber Commando programme, launched in September 2024, is training a specialised wing of officers to counter cybersecurity threats, while the National Digital Investigation Support Centre in New Delhi provides early-stage cyber forensics assistance to investigating officers.
Limitations and Concerns
The numbers also reveal the limits of the current effort. Of the over 65.89 lakh complaints filed on the NCRP between 2021 and 2025, only about 1.96 lakh were converted into FIRs, a conversion rate of roughly three per cent. The e-Zero FIR system is designed to raise that figure, but it has so far been adopted by only 18 states and UTs, leaving the rest of the country outside the mechanism.
The three-day conversion window has also drawn criticism. A victim who is travelling, unwell, or living far from the jurisdictional cyber crime station may struggle to physically appear within the deadline, raising the risk that the e-Zero FIR lapses. The fact that police and public order are State subjects means the central system depends entirely on the willingness and capacity of state governments to set up e-Crime Police Stations, train personnel, and integrate their databases with CCTNS.
The gap between money lost and money saved remains the sharpest measure of the challenge. Against the ₹55,050 crore reported lost, the CFCFRMS has so far helped recover or freeze around ₹11,158 crore, a reminder that fraud networks move money faster than any reporting system can chase it. Many fraud operations are also based abroad, in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, where Indian law enforcement has limited reach.
The Way Forward
The Ministry of Home Affairs has laid out a clear direction for the system. The e-Zero FIR mechanism, which began as a Delhi pilot, is being extended state by state as each government notifies its e-Crime Police Station and fixes its loss threshold. In April 2026, two new modules were made functional under the CFCFRMS: a Money Restoration Module to speed up the return of defrauded funds to victims, and a Grievance Redressal Module to resolve disputes over frozen bank accounts and lien markings.
The Ministry is also working to bring every bank and financial institution, including cooperative banks, into the fraud reporting loop, with a stated target of onboarding all of them by December 2026. Standard operating procedures issued for the NCRP-CFCFRMS now lay down a uniform framework for complaint processing, bank coordination, and restoration of funds. For the e-Zero FIR system to fulfil its promise, the test will be whether the states that have not yet joined come on board, and whether the three-day conversion rule becomes a routine procedure rather than a barrier for victims.
Key Takeaways
- Over 12,000 e-Zero FIRs were registered against cyber financial fraud across 18 states and Union Territories, with Delhi recording the highest at 6,115, followed by Chandigarh at 4,174.
- The e-Zero FIR initiative was launched as a pilot project for Delhi on 19 May 2025 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, with the initial loss threshold set at ₹10 lakh.
- The system automatically converts complaints filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) or helpline 1930 into e-Zero FIRs, integrating the NCRP, state e-Crime Police Stations, and the NCRB’s CCTNS.
- The e-Zero FIR must be converted into a regular FIR by visiting the jurisdictional police station within three days, as mandated under Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023.
- The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), approved in October 2018 and operational since January 2020, coordinates the national response, since police and public order are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
- Between 2021 and 2025, over 65.89 lakh financial fraud complaints were filed on the NCRP reporting losses exceeding ₹55,050 crore, while the CFCFRMS helped save more than ₹11,158 crore.
