NEW DELHI: Keeping up the heat on accused in cyber fraud cases, SC on Wednesday said if the situation demands, it will restrain courts from granting bail to those arrested for putting senior citizens under digital arrest to dupe them of their hard-earned life savings.This observation came from a bench of CJI Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana as the counsel for a Delhi-based petitioner, who is accused of providing a mule account for deposit of proceeds of extortion through digital arrest, sought clubbing of numerous cases in different states at one place.
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Perusing the records, SC said that one of the first victims of this crime syndicate was an 81-year resident of Ernakulam, from whom the criminals allegedly extorted 1.9 crore. “You want such victims of digital arrest and cyber fraud to travel to other states to depose as complainants? The cases will be investigated by police of the state in whose jurisdiction the persons were defrauded through digital arrest,” it noted.“Extortion is a milder term for such crimes. It is dacoity to say the least,” the bench said. When the counsel pleaded that the petitioner had filed a complaint on coming to know of her account being used as a mule account for transfer of ill-gotten monies, the bench said and added, “We will not allow foot soldiers of the crime syndicate to derail investigations. At best, the petitioner can approach the HCs concerned and seek consolidation of investigations into all cases in a state by one agency.”The apex court bench said the balance of convenience must tilt towards the victims of cyber fraud and digital arrest.The petitioner withdrew her petition.