New Delhi, March 16 The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would hear next week a suo motu case concerning victims of digital extortion.
Digital extortion is a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officers, court officials, or personnel from government agencies to intimidate victims through audio and video calls. They hold the victims hostage and pressure them to pay money.
On February 9, the top court described the siphoning of more than ₹54,000 crore by digital frauds as "absolute robbery or dacoity" and asked the Centre to draft a standard operating procedure (SOP) in consultation with stakeholders such as the RBI, banks, and the Department of Telecommunications to deal with such cases.
On Monday, Attorney General R Venkataramani mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The top law officer said he would place a status report in the matter during the day. Asserting that things are moving forward, he urged the bench to take up the matter, which was listed for hearing on Monday, next week.
The bench said it would list the matter next week or at the earliest.
On February 9, the top court expressed grave concern over the "menace" of digital extortion scams and said banks must play a proactive role in preventing cyber-enabled fraud.
The apex court directed the CBI to identify digital extortion cases and asked the Gujarat and Delhi governments to grant sanction to the federal probe agency to proceed with the investigations in identified cases.
It also asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and others to jointly hold a meeting to come up with a framework for providing compensation in digital extortion cases.
A pragmatic and liberal approach is needed to deal with the award of compensation to digital extortion victims, the top court said, and asked the authorities to file fresh status reports before the next date of hearing.
The attorney general had informed the bench that the RBI has drafted an SOP for banks to deal with such cases and it, among other things, prescribes action by the banks where temporary debit holds can be placed to prevent cyber-enabled frauds.
Issuing a slew of fresh directions, the bench asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to formally adopt the RBI's SOP and issue directions for its implementation across the country.
On December 1, the top court asked the CBI to carry out a unified pan-India probe into digital extortion cases, and asked the RBI why it was not using artificial intelligence (AI) to trace and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals.
