New Delhi, On Monday, the Supreme Court described over sieving ₹54,000 crore through digital fraud as outright “robbery or robbery” and asked the Center to draft a standard operating procedure in consultation with stakeholders like the RBI, banks and the Department of Telecommunications to deal with such cases.
SC stipulates theft of over ₹54,000 crore by digital fraud ‘robbery’, asks Center to formulate SOPA bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Jayamalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria observed that the amount looted through digital fraud is more than the budget of many small states.
Noting that such offenses could be committed either by bank officials or due to negligence, the apex court emphasized the need for timely action from RBI and banks.
Issuing several new directives, it asked the home ministry to consider the Standard Operating Procedures of the Reserve Bank of India and similar SOPs or resolutions of the Department of Telecom and come up with a draft MoU within four weeks to effectively deal with such offences.
The bench also noted that the RBI has framed an SOP by banks to temporarily hold debit cards to prevent cyber-enabled fraud.
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It has directed the CBI to identify digital arrest cases and asked the Gujarat and Delhi governments to authorize the Federal Investigation Agency to continue investigations in the identified digital arrest cases.
The Supreme Court has asked the RBI, DoT and others to hold a joint meeting to come up with a framework to provide compensation in cases of digital arrest. It said a pragmatic and liberal approach was needed to deal with the award of compensation to victims of digital arrests and posted the petition for further hearing after four weeks.
It asked the authority to submit fresh status report before the next date of hearing.
On December 16, the bench had asked the Center to look into the suggestions made by the amicus curiae to ensure compensation to victims of digital arrests while expressing concern over large amounts being taken out of the country by cyber criminals.
Digital arrest is a growing form of cybercrime where fraudsters pose as law enforcement officers, court officials or government agency workers to intimidate victims through audio and video calls. They hold the victims hostage and pressurize them to pay.
On December 1, the apex court asked the CBI to conduct a coordinated pan-India probe into digital arrests and asked the RBI why it was not using artificial intelligence to trace and freeze bank accounts used by cybercriminals.
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