Supreme Court Orders CBI Crackdown on Digital Arrests

That the digital arrest scam has become ubiquitous in India is evident in constant front-page headlines of innocent victims from vulnerable groups being extorted out of huge sums of money. In late November, for instance, a 70-year-old woman from Gurgaon got a call from someone claiming to be from the police and investigating money laundering from her bank account. She was placed under digital arrest and close to Rs 80 lakh taken from her. In Hyderabad, earlier that month, a 71-year-old man was similarly scammed to the tune of Rs 1.92 crores.

The Supreme Court has now stepped in and, on Monday, ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to launch a concerted plan to address this crime. A two-judge bench also gave the CBI the means to do so. They said the state governments should give consent to the agency to launch investigations of this crime in their jurisdictions. Also, the CBI could proceed against banks and bankers who had facilitated the accounts from which these scamsters were operating. The telecommunications department was exhorted to look into the SIM cards which were being used to make the phone calls, while the Reserve Bank of India was told to look into using artificial intelligence to trace the money channels of the criminals. States were also asked to spruce up their cybercrime policing.

There have been large public awareness campaigns in the past with celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan appearing in public service advertisements warning people not to fall prey to digital arrests. But it has not been adequate and the scams have continued, primarily because it is widespread and being conducted by different criminals who are not connected to each other. The police have only been able to deal with individual cases without addressing the phenomenon itself. With the Supreme Court now putting digital arrests on top of the priorities of cyber crimes, hopefully there will be some progress in curtailing this crime.