Probe pan-India digital arrest fraud cases: Supreme Court to CBI

The Supreme Court on Monday entrusted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe all pending first information reports (FIR) in cases related to digital fraud.

“The digital arrest scam undoubtedly requires immediate attention of the premier investigation agency and therefore we proceed further with a clear direction that CBI shall investigate case reporting as Digital Arrest scam,” said a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi.

The court issued a slew of directions giving the agency a “free hand” to probe the role of banks and its officials in facilitating opening of new bank accounts into which the fraudsters coerce the victims to transfer money.

The court also issued notice to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to assist the court on how artificial intelligence or machine learning tools can be employed to detect such accounts.

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The court directed the Information Technology intermediaries to provide details and cooperation to the CBI in the investigation related to digital arrest cases.

The bench asked all states, Union Territories (UT) to set up a regional and state cyber crime coordination centre to deal with such online offences.

The top court said all states and Union Territories and their police agencies along with CBI are free to freeze bank accounts used in defrauding citizens.

The court passed the order in a suo motu proceedings on a letter addressed by an elderly couple in Haryana who were duped of over ₹1 crore in a digital arrest fraud.

The court also asked the department of telecom (DoT) to ensure that telecom service providers do not provide multiple SIM cards to one user or entity, which may be used in cyber crimes.