Digital Arrest Crackdown: Supreme Court Opens All Doors For CBI Probes; Demands Banks, Telcos To Cooperate

The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed the CBI unprecedented investigative powers in a sweeping move to crack down on the rising menace of digital arrest scams, allowing the agency to pursue the scam on a pan-India basis with no jurisdictional barriers.

The court granted the CBI complete freedom to access phone data, freeze bank accounts and investigate the role of bankers under the Prevention of Corruption Act, marking one of the strongest central interventions yet in cyber-fraud investigations.

The Supreme Court also issued notice to the Reserve Bank of India, asking why artificial intelligence and machine learning cannot be deployed to identify recurrent patterns in digital arrest frauds.

Further tightening the institutional net, the bench directed all states to hand over digital arrest cases to the CBI, ensuring unified investigation across the country. States must also identify police officers who will assist the CBI in the probe, the court said.

To plug systemic gaps, the Supreme Court issued a series of interim directions, ordering full cooperation from IT intermediaries, telecom operators and the telecom department.

Intermediaries under the IT Rules have been told to store mobile phone data of all devices linked to cybercrime cases and named in FIRs across states, and to assist the CBI with relevant data.

Telecom operators, meanwhile, have been directed to cooperate with investigators, with the court flagging concerns over multiple SIM cards issued in the same name. The Department of Telecommunications has been asked to file a detailed reply on how it plans to prevent misuse of SIM cards going forward.

Recognising the international footprint of these scams, the Supreme Court also permitted the CBI to seek assistance from Interpol, adding a cross-border dimension to the probe.

Importantly, the court said the CBI must prioritise digital arrest scams first out of all categories of cybercrime, calling the threat severe enough to warrant immediate and focused action.