Inter-departmental panel formed to combat 'digital arrests' on real-time basis, met with online intermediaries: Government to Supreme Court

The Union government has swung into action to combat digital arrests, which has deprived citizens, mostly elderly and the vulnerable of thousands of crores of hard-earned money, by forming an inter-departmental committee (IDC) chaired by its Special Secretary (Internal Security) which has already held multiple meeting, of which the latest was attended by representatives of online platforms Google, WhatsApp, Telegram and Microsoft.

The government has informed the Supreme Court, which is hearing the case on January 13, in a status report that inputs to combat digital arrest scams have been received from the Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The high-level inter-departmental committee (IDC) was formed on December 26, 2025, and has officials from multiple agencies to “comprehensively examine all facets of the issue of digital arrests”.

Chaired by the Special Secretary (Internal Security), the IDC has representations at the level and above of Joint Secretary officers from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), DoT, Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Law & Justice, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, RBI, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Delhi Police and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), with its Chief Executive Officer acting as the member-secretary.

Attorney-General R. Venkataramani would attend the meetings of the IDC on a regular basis.

The IDC was formed after a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant had directed inter-departmental Ministerial consultations, under the guidance of the Attorney General, to clear the way to end the bane which has affected a large populace.

A striking case before the court was that of a septuagenarian woman Supreme Court lawyer, represented by advocate Vipin Nair, whose entire life savings was wiped out by scamsters posing as police officers, revealing that the fraud played was so convincing that even lawyers fall prey.

The Centre said the IDC would examine and guide enforcement agencies examine “real-time issues”; identify relevant legislations, rules, circulars and implementation gaps, suggest corrective measures and provide inputs for further directions, as may be required, by the Supreme Court.

The IDC, which had met thrice in December 2025 and in January 2026, said it would convene at regular intervals to “ensure time-bound and coordinated compliance”. The latest meeting with the social media intermediaries, search and messaging platforms was held on January 6.

The government sought at least a month’s time to obtain inputs from the remaining members of the IDC, hold further deliberations and come up with a “consolidated and considered outcome” before the apex court.

On December 1, the court had tasked the CBI to crack down on ‘digital arrest’ scammers and their associates, giving the agency a “free hand” to launch an anti-corruption probe into bankers involved in the opening of mule accounts linked to cyber crimes.

It had expressed shock at the “staggering amounts” digital arrest scammers have been able to siphon off from India. Digital arrests were widely reported in India since 2022, through 2024, when fraudsters would impersonate police officers and even judges to threaten innocent people with “online arrest” and scam money from them.

A note given by the Union government in the Supreme Court showed that ₹3000 crore has already been scammed by fraudsters from victims based on statistics gathered from reported complaints of digital arrests alone.

The Chief Justice had said that lapses on the part of bankers to allow such a large-scale scam to happen and even thrive may amount to ‘deficiency in service’. The court said there ought to be a system to alert customers against such scams.