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@article{186620,
        author = {Daxeshkumar Joshi},
        title = {Tracing the Digital Trail: An Analytical Study of Cyber Crime Investigation Methods in India},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {6},
        pages = {1412-1417},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=186620},
        abstract = {India’s rapid digitization has expanded the scope and complexity of cybercrime, compelling law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) to adopt new investigation methods that combine digital forensics, open-source intelligence (OSINT), platform cooperation, and inter-agency coordination. This study analyzes contemporary methods used by Indian investigators to trace “digital trails”—including seizure and imaging of devices, log correlation across platforms, cryptocurrency tracing, lawful interception, and cross-border mutual legal assistance (MLA) workflows—alongside the legal-privacy context shaped by the Information Technology (IT) Act, CERT-In directions, and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. Using a mixed-methods design, we considered secondary literature and a primary dataset that mimics a multi-state set of interviews (n=48) with police cyber cells, prosecutors, and digital forensics practitioners, plus a structured case-log abstraction (N=212 cases) spanning financial fraud, cyber-extortion, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), business email compromise (BEC), and social-media harassment. Descriptive statistics and hypothesis tests illustrate associations between standardized standard operating procedures (SOPs), OSINT tooling, and timeliness/resolution rates. Findings highlight five levers that materially improve outcomes: (1) early log preservation orders, (2) tiered SOPs for seizure and imaging, (3) a trained OSINT/crypto-tracing bench, (4) inter-state and cross-border templates for data requests, and (5) human-rights-by-design safeguards to protect due process and privacy. The paper concludes with policy and operational recommendations for national/state LEAs, prosecutors, and forensics labs, emphasizing capacity building, platform-agnostic playbooks, and privacy-preserving investigative practices.},
        keywords = {Cybercrime, Digital Forensics, India, OSINT, Incident Response, Chain of Custody, CERT-In, DPDP Act, Mutual Legal Assistance, Cryptocurrency Tracing, Standard Operating Procedures, Platform Disclosure.},
        month = {November},
        }