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Supreme Court: The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi has issued notice to the Center and CBI and sought their response.
Supreme Court: The Supreme Court has taken seriously the case of fraud of Rs 1.05 crore by a senior citizen couple in Ambala. The Supreme Court has expressed strong concern over the increasing cases of digital arrests. The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi has issued notice to the Center and CBI seeking their reply. The fraudsters had committed this fraud by using fake orders of the court and investigating agencies. The matter came to light when the 73-year-old victim wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India, after which the court took suo motu cognizance. The bench said that forging court orders and signatures of judges to digitally arrest innocent people is an attack on people’s faith in judicial institutions. The court said that senior citizens are often targeted in such scams. CBI is already investigating such scams.
Fraud of more than Rs 1 crore
The Supreme Court sought assistance from the Attorney General and directed the Haryana government and the Ambala Cyber Crime Department to file a status report on the investigation conducted so far in the case of the senior citizen couple. This matter was brought to the notice of the court by the victim woman. The victim had alleged that the scammers defrauded her of more than Rs 1 crore through several bank transactions. For this, the accused prepared a fake court order with stamp and seal for the arrest and surveillance of the couple between September 3 and 16. The woman said that the court order was shown through several audio and video calls by the accused posing as CBI and ED officers to arrest them. In this case, the top court was informed that two FIRs were registered in the Cyber Crime Department in Ambala under various provisions of the Indian Justice Code (BNS).
Fraud attack on judicial institutions
The top court said that judicial orders bearing forged signatures of judges undermine public confidence in the judicial system apart from the rule of law. This kind of fraud is a direct attack on the dignity of the institution. The bench further said that such a serious criminal act cannot be treated as a common or single offense of fraud or cyber crime. The bench said that we also want to take judicial cognizance of the fact that this case is not an isolated case. It has been reported many times in the media that such crimes have taken place in different parts of the country. Therefore, we believe that there is a need for action and coordinated efforts between the Central and State Police to completely expose the criminal cases involving forgery of judicial documents, extortion/robbery from innocent people especially senior citizens.
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