On ₹3,000 cr defrauded from Indians through digital arrests, SC says use ‘iron hand’
The Centre told the Supreme Court particularly targeting the elderly persons, who were robbed of their entire life savings.
The Supreme Court on Monday said that digital arrest fraud needs to be dealt with an “iron hand” after it was informed by the Centre that an estimated ₹3,000 crore had been collected from Indian citizens alone, particularly targeting the elderly persons, who were robbed of their entire life savings.
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 a suo motu proceeding taken on a letter received by the top court from an elderly couple in Ambala who were robbed of over ₹1 crore through the modus operandi of digital arrest executed by persons 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 Centre said that the MHA has a dedicated unit which is coordinating such cases of digital arrest fraud.
On going through the reports of CBI and 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 were 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 similar letters written to the court in the past by the affected victims. The court directed those letters to 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 cases pan-India to one agency, preferably the CBI as SG Mehta had informed the court that the crime has trans-national linkages.
The court initiated suo motu proceedings on October 17 by issuing notice to the Centre, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Haryana government expressing grave concern over the issue as the 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 are facing in tackling such crimes is that when a person receives a call on WhatsApp and through Artificial Intelligence (AI) a person is shown a courtroom hearing, the source of the call is not traceable. He pointed out that in certain countries, there is what is called “scam compound” from where such crimes are operated and these criminals prefer destinations which do not have a mutual legal assistance treaty with India.
This is what happened to the Ambala couple who shared their story with the court in a letter addressed in September. The 73-year old couple in Ambala lost a total amount of ₹1.05 crore in transactions that took place between September 3 to 16. Persons impersonating as CBI officers contacted the couple through Whats App video call and showed forged Supreme Court order on a WhatsApp video call which threatened fraudulent seizure of their property. They were directed to transfer the sum to a specified account following which the couple approached the Ambala police station.
While taking up the matter, the court said that the forged use of court orders, name and seal of the high courts and Supreme Court is a matter of concern. The letter informed the court that they were even shown orders issued by ED with the proper seal and designation of authority which made them fall prey to such a crime.
It had then said, “The forgery of documents and brazen criminal misuse of name, seal and judicial authority of this court is a matter of grave concern which strikes at the very foundation of public trust in the judicial system, besides the rule of law.”
