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Informist, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – Expressing shock that over INR 30 billion had been collected from the victims fraudulently, the Supreme Court Monday said that it will deal with "iron hands" the issue of digital arrest scams across the country. "It's shocking that almost 3,000 crore (INR 30 billion) has been collected from the victims. And this is just in our country. If we don't pass harsh and stringent orders, the problem will magnify. We will deal with this with iron hands," said a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi.

 

The Supreme Court has taken a suo motu cognisance of spiralling incidents of scamsters using digital arrest to extort money from citizens after a complaint that the apex court's forged order was used to con people. The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Central Bureau of Investigation Monday submitted a sealed cover report before the court on the digital arrest scams. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta informed the court that a separate unit in the Ministry of Home Affairs was dealing with the issue.

 

Last month, the apex court had issued notices to the Centre, the Central Bureau of Investigation and other parties for a pan-India "stern action" plan against digital arrest scams. The top court had said that they were "aghast" that the fraudsters have fabricated multiple judicial orders in the name of the Supreme Court, including a freeze order issued under the money laundering law bearing forged signatures of a judge, an officer of the Enforcement Directorate and a court stamp. Further, the forged documents included various fictitious proceedings before the Bombay High Court and false claims of investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, the bench noted.

   

The case has its genesis from a complaint received by the top court from a senior citizen couple, who had been defrauded of their life savings through a digital arrest scam. The victims have said that they were contacted by persons impersonating the officers of Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau and judicial authorities through virtual conference and telephone. The fraudsters displayed forged orders of the Supreme Court through WhatsApp and virtual conferences. Under the threat of arrest of those forged documents, the couple was coerced to transfer INR 15 million through multiple bank transactions.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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