The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of digital arrests in the country after a senior citizen couple were duped of Rs 1.5 crore in Haryana’s Ambala.
The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Union Home Ministry, the CBI, the Haryana Government, and the Cyber Crime Department, Ambala, for their response on the case. The court sought a status report from the state government and the cybercrime department on the investigation. The bench has directed the Attorney General to assist the court in the matter.
Justice Surya Kant said strict action is needed in such cases, especially since fraudsters forged Supreme Court orders. He said judicial orders with forged signatures of judges undermined public trust in the judiciary.
The Court noted that this case is not an isolated one. Similar reports have appeared in the media numerous times, and continue to emerge from various parts of the country.
Between September 3 and September 16, fraudsters posing as CBI officers made video calls on WhatsApp to Shashibala Sachdev, a retired auditor for Haryana Roadways, and her husband, showing them a fake Supreme Court order.
They fabricated a false story of money laundering and placed them under digital arrest for 13 days. During this time, they defrauded the elderly couple of Rs 1.5 crore. By falsely accusing them of money laundering, the fraudsters got the Sachdevs’ to withdraw their fixed deposit and the funds transferred. This fraud came to light when the husband became distressed.
The court noted that such crimes seem to have a pattern in Ambala given similar FIRs over the defrauding by targeting senior citizens. The bench said stern action was necessary across the country to deal with this digital arrest menace.
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