Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has once again put the lens on the growing menace of ‘digital arrests’, which threaten to eat into the innards of society and shake the foundations of the Government. Following up on its suo motu cognisance of the crime, the apex court on October 27 issued notices to all states and Union Territories, directing them to furnish details of FIRs registered in regard to cybercrimes and progress of investigations thereto. The matter has been posted for next hearing on November 3.
The Bench observed that ‘digital arrests’ scams have assumed pan-India character and magnitude. It asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to map out a comprehensive plan to investigate such crimes. During the hearing, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta informed the court that similar cases were already being probed by the CBI in conjunction with the Cyber Crime wing of the Union Home Ministry. Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the Bench that the web of money-laundering syndicate operating in such crimes was based in foreign shores. The court had taken cognisance of the ‘digital arrests’ scams on October 17 following a plaint letter from a septuagenarian woman, residing at Ambala in Haryana. The letter had narrated the ordeal she and her husband had gone through at the hands of cyber scamsters, who allegedly duped them of over Rs 1 crore.
The victim-couples alleged that the fraudsters coerced them to transfer their life savings through several bank transactions after overwhelming them with forged SC orders through WhatsApp, video-conferencing and phone calls.
The spurious judicial documents reportedly included the apex court’s purported order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, an ‘arrest order’ bearing seals and designation of an officer of the Directorate of Enforcement, Mumbai, and a surveillance order bearing forged judicial signatures. The victimisation of the Ambala couple, however, is just a tip of the iceberg. A few days ago, fraudsters reportedly impersonated as CID officials and preyed on an 80-year-old resident of Satara, Maharashtra, on the pretense that his bank account was being investigated in connection with a terror funding case.
In another incident, a woman resident of Gurugram was duped of more than Rs 5 crore. The caller, in that case, claimed to b e from a courier company and claimed that Mumbai Customs had seized a drug parcel she was allegedly sending to Beijing
