Shocking, will deal with iron hands: Supreme Court on extortion of ₹3,000 crore in digital arrests

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed shock after it was informed that almost ₹3,000 crore have been extorted from people in cyber frauds, particularly digital arrest scams.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi called for stringent action to deal with the situation.

"It’s shocking that almost ₹3,000 crore has been collected from the victims. And this is just in our country. If we don’t pass harsh and stringent orders, the problem will magnify. We will deal with this with iron hands," the Court remarked.

The Court was hearing a suo motu case initiated by it to address the growing menace of digital arrest scams across the country.

In the last hearing, it had directed all States to file details of the first information reports (FIRs) registered by them. The Court had also asked whether the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has the resources to handle all cases across the country relating to such scams.

In response, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and CBI submitted a sealed cover report before the Court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that a separate unit in the MHA was dealing with the issue.

"A separate unit in MHA is coordinating and several steps are being taken," he said.

Following a brief hearing, the Court said appropriate directions will be passed. The matter was ordered to be listed on November 10.

The matter arose after couple, who are senior citizens, wrote to the Supreme Court last month, stating that they had been defrauded of ₹1.5 crore between September 1 and 16 by scammers impersonating officials of the CBI, Intelligence Bureau and the judiciary. The fraudsters had contacted them through phone and video conference, showing forged Supreme Court orders to coerce payment under threat of arrest.

Two FIRs were subsequently registered with the cybercrime branch at Ambala, revealing an organised pattern of such offences targeting senior citizens.

The Court took note of media reports suggesting that similar scams had occurred across several States and on October 17 sought responses from the Central government and the CBI. It also requested the assistance of the Attorney General for India.