SC cracks down on digital arrest fraud

The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of the growing menace of “digital arrest” scams — a sophisticated form of cyber fraud in which criminals impersonate law enforcement officers, intelligence officials, or even judges, to extort money from victims, particularly senior citizens, using forged court orders and fake proceedings.

- Utkarsh Anand

The court's intervention came after a 73-year-old woman from Ambala, Haryana, wrote a detailed letter to the Supreme Court, describing how she and her husband were virtually “detained” by scammers who produced fake Supreme Court orders and forced them to transfer over ₹1 crore. The fraudsters, she said, used forged documents purporting to bear the signature of former Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna.

Taking note of the gravity of the issue, the court registered a suo motu (on its own motion) case titled “In Re: Victims of Digital Arrest Related to Forged Documents.”

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, while hearing the matter, expressed serious concern over the increasing incidents of judicial forgery and the brazen misuse of the court's authority by cybercriminals.

“The forgery of documents and the criminal misuse of the name, seal and judicial authority of this court or the high courts is a matter of grave concern. The fabrication of judicial orders bearing forged signatures of judges strikes at the very foundation of the public trust in the judicial system besides the rule of law,” stated the bench.

Calling the act “a direct assault on the dignity of the institution,” the bench noted that such crimes could not be viewed as mere acts of cheating or cyber fraud. “Such grave criminal acts cannot be treated as an ordinary or routine offence of cheating or cybercrime. They undermine the faith that citizens repose in the courts and the justice delivery system,” it observed.