New Delhi, Mar 16: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear next week a suo motu case related to victims of “digital arrest”, a growing form of cybercrime involving online intimidation and financial fraud.
Digital arrest scams involve fraudsters posing as law enforcement officers, court officials or personnel from government agencies who threaten victims through audio and video calls. The criminals often intimidate people into believing they are under investigation and pressure them to transfer money.
On February 9, the apex court described the siphoning of more than ₹54,000 crore through digital fraud as “nothing short of robbery or dacoity” and asked the Centre to draft a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) in consultation with stakeholders such as the RBI, banks and the Department of Telecommunications to address such cases.
On Monday, Attorney General R. Venkataramani mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. He informed the court that a status report would be submitted during the day and requested that the matter be taken up next week as developments were underway.
The bench agreed and said the case would be listed for hearing next week or at the earliest.
Earlier, the court had expressed serious concern over the rising “menace” of digital arrest scams and stressed that banks must play a proactive role in preventing cyber-enabled fraud. It also directed the CBI to identify such cases and asked the Gujarat and Delhi governments to grant sanction for the federal agency to proceed with investigations.
The court further asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and other stakeholders to jointly hold a meeting to develop a framework for providing compensation to victims of digital arrest scams.
Emphasising the need for a pragmatic and liberal approach in awarding compensation, the court asked authorities to submit fresh status reports before the next hearing.
The Attorney General informed the bench that the RBI has already drafted an SoP for banks, which includes provisions allowing temporary debit holds on accounts to prevent cyber-enabled fraud.
The bench also directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to formally adopt the RBI’s SoP and ensure its implementation across the country.
Earlier, on December 1, the Supreme Court had asked the CBI to conduct a unified pan-India probe into digital arrest cases and questioned the RBI on why artificial intelligence (AI) was not being used to trace and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals. (Agency)
