New Delhi: Highlighting the importance of international cooperation in combating cybercrimes, the Supreme Court, on Monday asked the Centre to take a call on ratifying the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime.
A two-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a suo motu case concerning a ‘digital arrest’ fraud. It wanted to know from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta whether India is part of the convention.
“To the best of our knowledge, there is a United Nations resolution – the UN Convention against Cybercrime – has our country ratified it?”
When informed that India was yet to ratify it, Justice Bagchi observed: “Mr Solicitor, please look into that because without the collective efforts from all the law enforcement agencies across the world, we will never be able to (check cybercrimes) … That is one of the important and prime needs to track the money trail …”
The bench also came down hard on an accused in a “digital arrest” case in which a 72-year-old woman lawyer was duped of Rs 3.29 crore. It ordered that the accused should not be granted bail till the investigation is complete.
“The accused shall not be released on bail by any court till the investigation is taken to a logical conclusion,” the bench directed after advocate Vipin Nair, appearing on behalf of the Supreme Court Advocate on Records Association (SCAORA), pointed out that the accused are likely to be released soon as the 90-day period for filing chargesheet is coming to an end.
“This matter may require some unusual orders,” Justice Kant said after pronouncing the order.
“This is an unusual phenomenon, and needs unusual intervention,” SG Mehta noted.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of a complaint by a senior citizen couple from Ambala in Haryana who fell victim to cyber fraud. On October 17, the Supreme Court sought the response from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter.
The couple had complained that they were defrauded of Rs 1.05 crore by “digital arrest” fraudsters who allegedly threatened them with forged orders of the Supreme Court, Bombay High Court and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The Supreme Court then proposed transferring all such “digital arrest” cases from the different states to the CBI, asking them to submit details of such cases registered in their respective jurisdictions.
