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The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the cases of digital arrests in the country. The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the matter “requires immediate attention of the premier investigating agency.”
“Therefore we proceed with a clear direction that CBI shall firstly investigate cases on digital arrests scam,” it said, adding that other categories of cyber crimes shall be taken up in subsequent stages.
Given the role of mule accounts in perpetrating the scam, the court said the CBI shall have a free hand to probe the role of bankers under the Prevention of Corruption Act, where bank accounts are opened for the purpose of digital arrest scams.
It further asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to assist the court on whether artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning could be implemented to identify such suspicious accounts and freeze the proceeds of crime.
The top court also asked authorities under the Information Technology Intermediary Rules 2021 to cooperate with the CBI as and when required in the course of the investigation.
As some states have done away with the general consent for CBI to probe cases in their jurisdiction, the Supreme Court asked states that have not granted consent to the premier central agency for the investigations to grant consent, so that it can carry out comprehensive action on a pan-India basis.
It asked the CBI to request Interpol authorities for assistance as and when needed, given the magnitude of such crimes and the fact that they could extend beyond India’s territorial jurisdiction.
The court also said that if the facts expose the alarming and negligent approach of telecom service providers in issuing SIM cards or multiple SIM cards in the same name, the Department of Telecom should submit a proposal to the court for preventing such misuse.
It asked states which are yet to establish cybercrime centres to do so without further delay and apprise the court if they face any difficulty in doing so.
Taking suo motu cognisance of a complaint by a senior citizen couple from Ambala in Haryana, the Supreme Court had on October 17 sought the response of the Home Ministry and CBI in the matter.
The couple had complained that they were defrauded of Rs 1.05 crore by digital arrest fraudsters who allegedly threatened them with forged orders of the Supreme Court, Bombay High Court and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The top court had then proposed transferring all the cases from different states to the CBI and asked them to submit details of the cases registered in this connection in their respective jurisdictions.
