NEW DELHI: Maintaining its zero-tolerance approach towards digital arrest and cyber fraud cases, SC Friday said police must invoke charges under stringent laws to prevent such organised crimes.Rejecting the bail plea of Mohamad, aka MD, accused in a case relating to digital arrest followed by fraudsters posing as policemen and showing forged SC orders to coerce a man to part with Rs 76 lakh last year, a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said, “Digital arrest and cyber fraud cases must be equated with robbery and dacoity. Why are these offences not classified as organised crime?” It asked Gujarat police why they had not added charges under Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Act, which came into force in 2019.When the petitioner’s counsel Aastha Mehta said the accused had been in custody for more than a year, and he be granted bail as investigation in the case had been completed, the bench said, “If you want the court to entertain the plea, then the first thing we will do is to add graver charges under the law on organised crime.”It was alleged that unknown persons impersonating Mumbai policemen accused the complainant of being involved in a money laundering case and placed him under digital arrest for two days through continuous video calls, during which they forwarded him forged documents purporting to be arrest warrants and judicial orders issued by SC through WhatsApp.SC had taken cognisance of rising digital arrest scams, mostly targeting senior citizens, and asked CBI to probe cases pan-India, and was instrumental in activating an inter-departmental mechanism involving different agencies to implement steps to curb this menace.
