The Supreme Court said on Monday that digital arrest frauds need to be dealt with an “iron hand” after it was informed by the Centre that Indian citizens have been duped of an estimated ₹3,000 crore in such cases.
A bench headed by justice Surya Kant said, “If we ignore this problem or cow down now and don’t pass stringent orders, the problem will magnify. We are determined to deal with this problem with an iron hand.”
The observations by the court came after it went through a sealed cover report submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in suo motu proceedings taken on a letter received by the top court from an elderly couple in Ambala who were robbed of over ₹1 crore through a digital arrest executed by people posing as law enforcement officers.
Realising the importance of the issue, the court appointed senior advocate NS Nappinai as amicus curiae and posted the matter for hearing on Monday.
Going through the contents of the confidential MHA report, the bench, also comprising justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Joymalya Bagchi, said, “The problem seems to be more than what we thought. It is shocking that an amount of ₹3,000 crore has been collected from the victims. This data is just of our country and we don’t know what the position is globally.”
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre said the MHA has a dedicated unit coordinating such cases of digital arrest fraud. On going through the reports of the CBI and the MHA, the court agreed to share a brief note with the amicus curiae seeking her suggestions on the same.
“Some of the suggestions given by them are salutary and very positive that did not cross our minds. Some of the issues highlighted in the report are extremely important,” the bench said.
Meanwhile, the court noted that similar to the letter received in September based on which the suo motu proceedings had been initiated, there were other letters written to the court in the past by victims. The court directed that those letters be shared with the SG and the amicus.
The court had on October 27 directed all states and UTs to provide information about the number of digital arrest cases while hinting at transferring all of them to one agency, preferably the CBI, as Mehta said the crime often has transnational linkages.
The court initiated suo motu proceedings on October 17 by issuing a notice to the Centre, the CBI and the Haryana government expressing grave concern over the issue as criminals used to extract money by showing fake orders passed by courts and law enforcement agencies, striking at the root of public confidence in the rule of law.
Mehta told the court that one of the challenges that the investigating agencies face in tackling such crimes is that when someone receives a call on WhatsApp, through artificial intelligence (AI) the person is shown a courtroom hearing, while the source of the call is not traceable. He pointed out that in certain countries, there is what is called a “scam compound” from where such crimes are conducted and these criminals prefer destinations that do not have a mutual legal assistance treaty with India.
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