NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Central government should examine defining "digital arrest" in criminal statutes and making it a standalone offence with harsher consequences for those indulged in such kind of offences.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by CJI Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana explained that the digital arrest refers to cyber fraud where impersonators posing as law-enforcement or government officials use audio and video calls to intimidate victims and coerce payments.
It is to be noted that digital arrest is a growing form of cyber crime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement or court officials or personnel from government agencies to intimidate victims through audio and video calls.
CJI Surya Kant asked, "Do you have to define formally the case of digital arrest in penal laws? It has elements of extortion, robbery. Do you need to define this as a standalone offence with serious consequences, along with a provision that when something is found against an accused...his assets will be frozen."
The CJI also observed that once a prima facie opinion is drawn against an accused on the basis of reasoned evidence, his assets could be frozen.
During the hearing, Attorney General R Venkataramani, top law officer appearing for the Centre, submitted that an Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) is in the process of finalising a comprehensive report to identify systemic gaps in tackling digital arrest cases.
Echoing a similar voice, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, also appearing for the Union, said that the government is working on a law to address deepfakes and digital arrests.
"There is a draft bill which is coming up... It will take care of digital arrests, deepfakes etc, "Mehta said.
The top court registered the suo motu case on digital arrest scams in October 2025, after an elderly couple wrote to the Supreme Court stating that they were defrauded of Rs 1.5 crore between September 1 and 16 by scammers impersonating as officials of the CBI, Intelligence Bureau and the judiciary.
The fraudsters had contacted them through phone and video conference and showed them forged Supreme Court orders to coerce payment under threat of arrest.
On December 1, last year, the Supreme Court in its order had asked the CBI to carry out a detailed and unified pan-India probe into the digital arrest scam cases and asked the RBI as to why it was not using Artificial Intelligence to find out and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) shall have a free hand to investigate the role of bankers under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act wherever they are found involved in opening of mule accounts used in cyber crime cases", the bench had said in its earlier order.
