The Prime Minister flagged digital arrest scams in his Man Ki Baat radio address in its 115th episode on October 27, 2024 and laid down with clarity what the ground conditions were; the reality, the legality and the prevention. Digital Arrest thus came under intense focus and one believed that something transformative was about to happen. The interagency coordination, intelligence sharing and slew of other concrete measures was intended to take this battle beyond the superficial 1930 and I4C mechanism. While jingles and caller tune replacement messages about cautioning against these cyber crimes are good to hear, what dent it makes in the ground situation is debatable.
Long before this Man Ki Baat there were situations graver than the digital arrest as we understand and has generally been reported. The case I am referring to is that of BITS Pilani Professor Srijata Dey and lasted for approximately three months. It was being termed as Digital Detention. If it were to happen in the physical world, what would be the nature of impact and the consequent investigation. The facts are chilling to say the least. It started on 29th of October 2023, the day she received the first fake call from someone posing as a TRAI official. She was falsely accused of money laundering and threatened with arrest.
If the educated and the techies are totally unaware of law and how the investigative system operates, then whose fault is it? How much sympathy do they deserve? This is not to defend the investigative incompetence and the sheer lack of will to surmount digital investigation. For the record in over three months, the BITS Pilani Professor transferred Rs. 7.62 crores in 42 transactions, even taking Rs.80 lakh in loans. In February 2024 she realised the fraud and filed a complaint. So for over 90 days, it was continuous psychological manipulation– isolated, coerced and financially exploited while *under constant digital surveillance( via Skype.
That the local police in a small rural setting as in the case of Cyber Cell of the Jhunjhunu District Police does not have the competence to conduct this nature of investigation is a given. Given the scale and the complexity of the crime, Rajasthan Police handed over the case to the CBI. CBI employed a multi-pronged investigative strategy; advanced data analytics, profiling and surveillance techniques to track the culprits. After one year, CBI on Tuesday arrested four key members of an organised cyber crime network from Mumbai and Moradabad for the crime. With complex and multi-geography cyber crimes being rampant, how many cases will get this sort of focus? For the defrauded it is a lost case and a lost cause too.
OUR TECH INFRA AND RESOURCES ARE NO MATCH TO THE CYBER CRIME INVESTIGATION DEMANDS OF THE DAY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.