SC terms siphoning of over Rs 54,000 cr by digital fraud ‘dacoity’, asks Centre to frame SoP
The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria, observed that the amount siphoned off through digital fraud was more than the budget of many small states.
Noting that such crimes may arise from collusion or negligence on the part of bank officials, the high court emphasized that the RBI and banks should take timely action.
Issuing a set of fresh instructions, it asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to consider the Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) of the Reserve Bank of India and similar SoP or orders of the Department of Telecom (DoT) and prepare a draft MoU within four weeks to effectively deal with such crimes.
The bench also stated that the RBI has prepared an SOP prescription action by banks to temporarily hold debit cards to prevent cyber-enabled fraud.
He directed the CBI to identify digital arrest cases and asked the Gujarat and Delhi governments to sanction the federal investigation agency to continue investigations in identified digital arrest cases.
The Supreme Court also asked the RBI, DoT and others to hold a joint meeting to create a framework for providing relief in digital detention cases. Stating that a pragmatic and liberal approach is needed to pay compensation to victims of digital detention, the institution published the defense for a new hearing in four weeks. He asked the authorities to submit new situation reports before the next hearing date.
On December 16, the bench asked the Center to examine proposals put forward by the amicus curiae on compensation to victims of digital interception and expressed concern over the huge amounts siphoned from the country by cybercriminals.
Digital arresting is a growing form of cybercrime in which scammers pose as law enforcement officers, court officials, or personnel at government agencies and attempt to intimidate victims through audio and video calls. They hold the victims hostage and pressure them to pay money.
The apex court on December 1 asked the CBI to conduct a unified pan-India probe into digital detention cases and asked the RBI why it did not use AI to track and freeze bank accounts used by cybercriminals.
