The India Battle Against the Dark Web: Crimes, Laws and Recommendations

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_113How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Dark Web; Cybercrime; Cyber Law in India; Darknet; Narcotics and Darknet; Police Reform; AI-based Surveillance; Information Technology Act 2000. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023

Abstract

In the silent corridors of the internet lies a digital underworld – the Dark Web, where anonymity empowers illicit trade, hidden communications and crimes that transcend physical borders. This study delves into the intersection of technology, law and deviance, examining how India’s existing legal frameworks, including the Information Technology Act (2000) and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023), respond to crimes perpetrated in this concealed domain. Drawing from both internation datasets (such as Europol, IWF, and U.S. research on Tor based activity) and Indian incident reports (NDPS seizure, identity leaks, cyber fraud losses), the research identifies major categories of dark web-facilitated offences, ranging from narcotics and arms trafficking to child exploitation and money laundering. This paper critically evaluates the effectiveness and limitations of current legislation, showing the enforcement challenges like lack of digital evolution in laws, data scarcity, jurisdictional overlap and technological opacity. It further proposes practical, system-level interventions such as integrating AI-driven dark web crawlers with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and establishing a National Dark Web Intelligence Repository as an actionable measure to bridge policy and practice. By connecting global research trends with Indian realities, this study pushes for specialized not just pushes for the need for specialized legal recognition of dark web crimes but also redefines how India’s cyber governance can evolve to confront the invisible side of the internet.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - S. Abarna
AU  - Asmitha Raghu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/31
TI  - The India Battle Against the Dark Web: Crimes, Laws and Recommendations
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Secure Data Analytics (ICAISDA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1591
EP  - 1611
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_113
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_113
ID  - Abarna2026
ER  -