Top court to take up petition on digital arrest victims tomorrow

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on October 27 a suo motu case concerning victims of “digital arrest” who were defrauded using forged judicial documents.

According to the apex court’s cause list, the suo motu petition titled “In Re: Victims of Digital Arrest Related to Forged Documents” will come up for hearing before a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi on Monday.

While hearing the matter on October 17, the top court had observed that, prima facie, a pan-India action with coordinated efforts between the Central and state police was required to expose the full extent of the criminal network involving forgery of judicial documents, cyber extortion and the so-called “cyber arrests” of innocent people.

It had sought responses from the Centre, the CBI and other authorities.

The court took cognisance of a case in which a senior citizen couple from Ambala, Haryana, was subjected to “digital arrest” on the basis of forged orders purportedly issued by the SC and other agencies. The fraudsters extorted Rs 1.05 crore from the couple.