The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Central government over the growing cases of digital arrests and cyber frauds targeting citizens across the country, particularly those involving forged judicial orders.
On the rising incidents of cybercrime, the top court said that a coordinated effort between the Centre and state governments is urgently needed to curb such offences.
A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joyamala Bagchi issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Ministry of Home Affairs, seeking their response to the suo motu proceedings initiated by the top court.
The court took suo motu cognisance based on a complaint dated September 21 from a senior citizen couple in Ambala, who were defrauded of their life savings through a digital arrest scam between September 1 and 16.
According to the complaint, the victims were contacted by individuals impersonating officials of the CBI, Intelligence Bureau, and judicial authorities via video calls and telephone.
The fraudsters displayed forged orders of the Supreme Court on WhatsApp and video calls, carrying the purported signature of former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.
Under the threat of arrest based on those forged documents, the couple was coerced into transferring Rs 1.5 crore through multiple bank transactions.
The complaints revealed that two FIRs were registered at the Cyber Crime Branch, Ambala, indicating a pattern of organised criminal activity targeting senior citizens, the court noted while taking judicial notice of the alarming rise in cybercrimes against the elderly.
"Ordinarily we would have directed the state police to expedite the investigation and take it to the logical conclusion. We are however aghast that the fraudsters have fabricated multiple judicial orders in the name of the Supreme Court Of India, including a freeze order dated September 1 purportedly issued under the PMLA bearing forged signatures of a judge, officer of ED, and a court stamp also," Justice Surya Kant said while dictating order today.
The top court observed that there had been a brazen criminal misuse of the name, seal, and judicial authority of the Bombay High Court, along with false claims of investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI.
"Judicial orders with fake signatures of judges strike at the very foundation of the public trust system in the judiciary. Such grave criminal acts cannot be treated as an ordinary or routine offence of cheating or cybercrime," Justice Kant said.
The court noted that this was not an isolated incident.
"It has been largely reported many times in the media that such incidents have taken place in different parts of the country," the bench observed.
The Supreme Court has also issued notices to the Haryana government as well as Ambala's Cybercrime Unit.
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