New Delhi: In a severe warning against organized online scams, the Supreme Court of India has strongly condemned modern cyber financial crimes—specifically “digital arrest” frauds—referring to them as “digital dacoity”.
A judicial bench firmly rejected a petition that sought to consolidate more than 30 criminal cases pending across 12 different states against individuals accused of facilitating online fraud.
Takeaways From the Judgment
Zero Leniency for Cyber Facilitators: The apex court made it clear that individuals who operate or provide infrastructure for online financial scams will not be granted special judicial convenience to escape the burden of facing multiple trials.
Dismissal of Case Transfer: The accused individuals had approached the court to club 35 criminal proceedings spread across states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Gujarat. The bench ruled that an accused party’s personal convenience cannot take precedence over the pursuit of justice for victims and local investigators.
Targeting Vulnerable Citizens: Emphasizing the alarming nature of these operations, the court pointed out a case where an 81-year-old senior citizen in Kerala was scammed out of ₹1.90 crore, with the stolen funds directly entering a mule account connected to the accused.
Preserving Local Investigations: The bench noted that merging these decentralized complaints would severely obstruct ongoing state-level police probes. Confronted with the court’s strict stance, the petitioners chose to withdraw their plea.
This judgment involves a petition filed by Gourab Kumar Saha and Nidhi Bhandari before the Supreme Court of India.
In this case, a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, alongside Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, refused to club or consolidate multiple criminal cases (over 30 cases across 12 states) tied to cyber fraud and company mule accounts. The bench famously termed these cyber offenses and digital arrest scams as “digital dacoity”.
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