Cyber Crimes are Serious and the Proposed Remedy Worse than the Disease

The Supreme Court has given a free hand to the CBI to take stringent action against the criminals in cyber world who impersonate the official agencies and defraud innocent people, most of them senior citizens, of their life’s earnings.

The way the cyber gangs operate to hoodwink their victims and relieve them of their money is well known. They make use of the video chat facility available on the smart phones, identify their victims and claim that they are from official agencies like the CBI, ED, etc., mention some alleged fraudulent transactions in their bank accounts, and demand huge amounts to be paid to their accounts as fine. This practice is now widely known as “digital arrest.”

Thousands of people have lost huge amounts this way, and according to figures mentioned in the Supreme Court, the amount lost to such fraudsters is as high as Rs. 3000 crore. It is possible that the actual amount lost could be much higher, as many refuse to complain to the authorities for fear of reprisals from these shadowy figures or a sheer sense of helplessness and shame.

There are other forms of cyber extortion like fraudulent investment schemes that offer exorbitant rates of returns, offers of lucrative part-time jobs carried out online for housewives and others seeking extra incomes, which the Supreme Court has noted in its order. These are mainly aimed at people who seek to earn easy money while the “digital arrest” is a much more serious matter as it exposes serious problems in the public perception about our investigating agencies and even our court system.

We need to ask ourselves why Indian people, especially its senior citizens, are falling victims to such an obvious sort of fraud, as every law-abiding citizen should know that there are strict and transparent methods for any sort of criminal investigation. Still, the moment the targeted victims are threatened by shadow criminal gangs, they cave in and shell out money to escape from their clutches.

The answer to this question is simple and stark: that the Indian official agencies often behave exactly the same way these criminal gangs operate. People are unable to distinguish between the police and the criminals! Extra judicial killings are quite common in this country, extortion of money by members of the official agencies is widespread, and illegal searches, arrests and intimidation in lock-ups are regular features of our law enforcement. Despite several Supreme Court orders and reports by judicial investigations, such practices are mounting and even the senior politicians and ministers speak in the language of gangsters instead of responsible administrators.

This situation has been exacerbated by the television trials where many of our celebrity anchors behave like trigger- happy cops or kangaroo court judges, ready to dispense with instant justice. What is more serious is the way these sort of characters are lionised and hailed as heroes by the rulers who shower favours on them with special interviews, access to the corridors of power, etc.

Such a negative public perception of the country’s governance and administrative system has gone deep into the psyche of the common people, making them susceptible to any sort of threats using the name of these agencies. It is a reflection of the terrible reputation they now have and the responsibility for bringing in such a disastrous situation should be shared by our rulers who happily misused the official agencies for their own gains. No wonder criminals have taken a cue from their actions.

The government’s remedy to this situation was, however, worse than the disease. The Central Government’s Sanchar Sathi app was nothing but a snooping instrument that would put into peril even the limited freedoms we enjoy. The decision to withdraw the order to pre-install the app into every phone sold in the country is welcome, but the real intentions behind this move are deeply worrying. It would be good if the government makes some introspection as to why the citizens have lost their faith in the official investigating agencies and readily believe that they are nothing but a criminal gang in uniform.

Adv. Sharfuddin Ahmad
National Vice President