India could soon have a dedicated legal framework to deal with digital arrest scams and deepfakes, with the Supreme Court asking the Centre to create stricter legal provisions for these fast-evolving cybercrimes.
Hearing the matter on Tuesday, the apex court said digital arrest scams should be recognised as a separate criminal offence carrying stringent punishment. It also flagged the urgent need to regulate deepfakes, which are increasingly being used for fraud and deception online.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana observed that investigators should be allowed to freeze an accused person’s assets during the probe whenever there is sufficient prima facie material before the court.
Justice Bagchi also highlighted the absence of a dedicated legal framework for emerging cyber threats and stressed that offences involving deepfakes require clear legislative backing.
Responding to the court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Centre is already preparing fresh legislation to address such crimes.
“There is a draft bill which is coming up … It will take care of digital arrests, deepfakes, etc,” Mehta submitted.
Attorney General R. Venkataramani informed the court that an Inter-Departmental Committee is in the final stages of preparing a report identifying legal and procedural gaps in tackling cyber-enabled fraud. He also said the CBI is investigating around 20 major digital fraud cases involving losses of ₹10 crore or more, while state police forces are handling other cases.
The Supreme Court said it will issue further directions in the matter on Wednesday.
The proceedings are part of the court’s ongoing suo motu case on digital arrest scams, launched after a series of incidents in which fraudsters impersonated police officers, investigative agencies and even judicial authorities to extort money from victims.
Earlier hearings saw the court express serious concern over forged judicial orders carrying fake signatures of judges, observing that such acts erode public confidence in the justice system and strike at the credibility of the judiciary.
The Bench was also informed that digital arrest scams have resulted in losses of nearly ₹3,000 crore. It has repeatedly underlined the need for coordinated action by central and state agencies to dismantle organised cyber fraud networks.
The case gained further attention after a 73-year-old woman from Ambala alleged that fraudsters used forged Supreme Court documents to place her under a fake “digital arrest” and allegedly extorted more than ₹1 crore. The court has sought status reports from the Centre, the CBI, the Haryana government and the Ambala cyber police on the progress of the investigation.
