₹3,000 crore lost to digital arrest scams, says Supreme Court

₹3,000 crore lost to digital arrest scams, says Supreme Court

Justice Kant says judiciary will pass strict orders to strengthen agencies against the fraudsters.

The Supreme Court on Monday said more than ₹3,000 crore had been scammed by fraudsters from victims, mostly drawn from the elderly population, through “digital arrests”.

A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant was referring to a confidential report submitted by the Union government. Justice Kant, who is the Chief Justice of India-designate, said the report showed that the problem of digital arrests was a “very big challenge”. “Much more than we thought...” Justice Kant observed.

“The report shows the extent of fraud is very big... ₹3,000 crore was collected from victims in India alone. What would be the suffering at the global level?” Justice Kant asked.

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, agreed with Justice Kant, saying digital arrest scam was initially found to be beyond what they had expected. Justice Kant said the judiciary would pass harsh and stringent orders to strengthen the hands of the agencies against the fraudsters, “give you all support”. “Otherwise, this problem will magnify, and the victims are aged people,” Mr. Mehta said.

In an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had orally mooted tasking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with probing the menace of digital arrests orchestrated by fraudsters posing as judges and police officers who use forged documents.

Attorney-General R. Venkataramani had submitted that these cyber crimes originate from across the border and were fashioned by “money-laundering gangs”.

‘Scam compounds’

The Solicitor-General had informed that the organised cybercrimes behind digital arrests were generated from “scam compounds” and done at a large-scale level.

The Supreme Court had originally taken suo motu cognisance of a case of digital arrest of a senior citizen couple in Haryana’s Ambala on the basis of forged orders of the court and probe agencies by fraudsters to extort ₹1.05 crore. However, the court was later informed that there were numerous cases across the country in which innocent people, especially senior citizens, were threatened with “cyber arrests” by criminals, who misuse Artificial Intelligence and other technology to morph courtrooms and police stations, unless they cough up huge sums of money.

“The impact of the problem is great. There is not only a financial but also a human angle. Gullible people are promised employment abroad and reduced to the status of slaves. Criminals morph the faces of judges and make calls with court rooms shown as background,” Mr. Mehta had said.