Supreme Court calls digital fraud Rs 54,000 crore robbery
The Supreme Court has termed digital fraud involving over Rs 54,000 crore as robbery and directed the Centre to frame a standard procedure with stakeholders. It also sought steps for compensation and better investigation of digital arrest cases
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday described the siphoning of over Rs 54,000 crore by digital frauds as absolute “robbery or dacoity” and asked the Centre to draft a standard operating procedure in consultation with stakeholders like the RBI, banks and the Department of Telecommunications to deal with such cases.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N V Anjaria observed that the amount siphoned off by digital fraud is more than the budgets of many small states.
Noting that such offences may be due to either collusion by or negligence of bank officials, the top court stressed the need for timely action from the RBI and the banks.
Issuing a slew of fresh directions, it asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to consider the Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) of the Reserve Bank of India and similar SoP or decisions of the Department of Telecom (DoT) and come up with a draft MoU in four weeks to effectively deal with such offences.
The bench also noted that the RBI has crafted an SOP prescribing action by banks to temporarily hold debit cards to prevent cyber-enabled fraud.
It directed the CBI to identify digital arrest cases and asked the Gujarat and Delhi governments to accord sanction to the federal probe agency to proceed with investigations in the identified digital arrest cases.
The Supreme Court also asked the RBI, the DoT and others to jointly hold a meeting to come up with a framework for providing compensation in digital arrest cases. It said a pragmatic and liberal approach is needed to deal with the award of compensation to digital arrest victims and posted the plea for further hearing after four weeks.
It asked the authorities to file fresh status reports before the next date of hearing.
On December 16, the bench asked the Centre to look into the suggestions put forward by the amicus curiae in ensuring compensation to victims of digital arrests, while voicing its concern over the enormous amounts taken out of the country by cyber criminals.
Digital arrest is a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officers, court officials or personnel from government agencies to intimidate victims through audio and video calls. They hold the victims hostage and put pressure on them to pay money.
On December 1, the top court asked the CBI to carry out a unified pan-India probe into digital arrest cases and asked the RBI why it is not using artificial intelligence to trace and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals.
