New Delhi – The Supreme Court on Monday asked the CBI to carry out a unified pan-India probe into digital arrest scam cases and asked the RBI as to why it was not using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to find out and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals.

Digital arrest is a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement, court officials or personnel from government agencies to intimidate victims through audio and video calls. They hold the victims hostage and put pressure on them to pay money.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the states, including opposition-ruled West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana, to accord consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act for probing digital arrest cases in their jurisdiction.

It issued notice to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and sought its response as to why AI or machine learning technology was not employed to identify mule accounts and freeze those which are used in cyber fraud cases.

The top court, which passed the directions in a suo motu case registered on the complaint of an elderly couple from Haryana, noted that mostly senior citizens were targeted and their hard-earned money was extorted by the cyber criminals.

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