Cyber criminals are parasites: Supreme Court denies bail, calls for harsh law
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, while refusing to grant bail to a man accused of cyber fraud, observed that cyber criminals are "parasites" who swindle
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, while refusing to grant bail to a man accused of cyber fraud, observed that cyber criminals are "parasites" who swindle unsuspecting citizens out of huge sums of money and that society's interests are best served by keeping such offenders behind bars. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India () Justice Surya Kant dismissed the bail plea while making strong oral observations on the growing menace of cybercrime in the country and said that the law needs to be harsher on them. Read Full Story "You guys are parasites.
You take money from investors and dupe them. We have to be harsh on cyber criminals. Society's interest is only that you are behind bars. Such crimes are always pan India. Take money from someone in Gujarat, then Mumbai, and so on," the Chief Justice said. The observations come amid a sharp rise in cyber fraud cases across India, with law enforcement agencies struggling to contain increasingly sophisticated online scams. Investigators say such crimes often involve fake investment schemes, digital arrest scams, phishing attacks, impersonation frauds, cryptocurrency scams and online trading frauds, resulting in losses running into thousands of crores of rupees.
The case in which the Supreme Court made the observations relates to an alleged investment fraud, where the accused is suspected of duping investors by promising high returns and siphoning off their money through a cyber-enabled scheme. Citing data placed before the court, the bench noted that Indians had lost more than Rs 3,000 crore to digital frauds by the end of last year alone, underlining the scale of the challenge posed by cybercrime. According to the latest data from the Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), cybercrime cases surged by nearly 63 per cent between 2021 and 2023, crossing 86,000 cases.
Karnataka recorded the highest number of cybercrime cases, followed by Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The Union Home Ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has repeatedly flagged the growing presence of organised cybercrime networks operating across state boundaries. These networks often use mule bank accounts, encrypted communication channels and overseas digital infrastructure to evade detection and enforcement. Ends
The BriefWire