India Supreme Court orders nationwide crackdown on digital arrest scams
The Supreme Court of India issued a series of nationwide directions to curb the growing menace of “digital arrest” scams. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant ordered the Reserve Bank of India to draft and circulate a Standard Operating Procedure for handling mule accounts and cyber‑fraud related accounts within four weeks, and to share the SOP with the Registrar General of every High Court. All states and Union Territories were instructed to operationalise the Grievance Redressal Module and Money Restoration Module under the Ministry of Home Affairs, to notify and activate State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres, and to adopt the e‑Zero FIR mechanism in consultation with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). The Court also directed an Inter‑Departmental Committee to examine a shared‑liability and victim‑compensation framework, and urged State Legal Services Authorities to launch public‑awareness campaigns on digital‑arrest scams. It recorded that defrauded funds had been restored in 36,290 cases, totalling about ₹18.05 crore, and called for faster disposal of bank‑freezing matters and wider adoption of the new mechanisms.
Entities: AI Vishleshak · Central Bureau of Investigation · Chief Justice Surya Kant · IIT Kharagpur · India · Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre · Reserve Bank of India · Saakshya · Supreme Court of India · Tushar Mehta
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [● 6 SOURCES] The Court urged State Legal Services Authorities to launch public‑awareness campaigns on digital arrest scams. (Supreme Court of India)
- [● 6 SOURCES] The Supreme Court directed the Reserve Bank of India to prepare and circulate a Standard Operating Procedure on mule accounts within four weeks. (Supreme Court of India)
- [● 7 SOURCES] The Court ordered all states and Union Territories to operationalise the Grievance Redressal Module and Money Restoration Module for digital arrest scams. (Supreme Court of India)
- [● 6 SOURCES] The Court ordered adoption of the e‑Zero FIR mechanism in consultation with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre. (Supreme Court of India)
- [● 6 SOURCES] The Court directed states to notify and operationalise State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres within four weeks. (Supreme Court of India)
- [● 5 SOURCES] The Court directed the Registrar General of every High Court to inform courts about the grievance redressal mechanism for bank‑freezing cases. (Supreme Court of India)
- [● 7 SOURCES] The Court directed an Inter‑Departmental Committee to examine a shared‑liability and victim‑compensation framework for digital arrest scams. (Supreme Court of India)
- [○ 1 SOURCE] The Court recorded restoration of defrauded money in 36,290 cases, totalling about ₹18.05 crore. (Supreme Court of India)