Digital arrest scams: CBI’s nationwide crackdown and Supreme Court’s continued scrutiny
Story so far: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has stepped up its offensive against ‘digital arrest’ scam rings under Operation Chakra-VI. The latest exercise focused on three major cases where victims were forced to transfer crores of rupees after being falsely told through video calls that they were in police custody. Three accused have been arrested so far. The agency says its search operations were based on a detailed examination of bank records and digital account access paths. The aim of the operation is to trace how the proceeds of crime moved and who ultimately benefited from it.
What happened
The agency searched 89 locations in 20 states. Among those arrested is accused Akash from Haryana, who received ₹1.95 crore of fraudulent funds into an account he had opened himself and moved the money the same day. Kolkata-based Raja Karmakar was accused of routing Rs 1.5 million of the proceeds through his firm’s account, while Jyoti Rani allegedly withdrew part of the funds credited to her account in cash and transferred the rest.
Cases under CBI scanner
The three cases at the center of this crackdown illustrate the scale of the racket. BITS professor Pilani was held in a fabricated ‘digital arrest’ for three months and defrauded of ₹7.67 crore. In October 2023, the victim was contacted by a caller claiming to represent India’s telecom regulator and warned that her mobile phone number was linked to a cybercrime complaint. Impersonators of Mumbai Police, Enforcement Directorate and CBI officials then took over Skype and falsely linked her to a money laundering case involving Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. The victim was threatened with arrest if he did not cooperate.
They claimed there was a police warrant out for her. For more than three months, she was forced to report her daily movements and believing her funds needed “digital verification”, as the fraudsters said, the victim withdrew ₹7.67 crore through 42 transactions and deposited the money in various accounts as instructed. She also took a loan of ₹80 crore from banks to make the payments.
In the second case, using a similar modus operandi, an elderly female doctor in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar was targeted. She was held under “digital arrest” for more than three months (from March 15 to June 25) by fraudsters posing as telecommunications officials, police officers, public prosecutors and notaries public. Using forged documents allegedly associated with the ED, the victim was led to believe that she was being investigated. She was forced to stay in constant video contact and share her live location at all times, including when traveling. The fraudsters told her that assets worth about ₹20 crore had to be “parked” pending an investigation.
The victim broke fixed deposits, took loans, sold gold and offloaded stocks, transferring ₹19.24 crore to around 30 accounts. Police arrested one accused, Lalji Jayantibhai Baldaniya, whose account was also used to receive money, and suspected links with a Cambodia-based cyber crime syndicate.
In February-March 2026, 81-year-old businessman Ajit Gopalkrishna Saraf of Belagavi was defrauded of ₹15.45 crore in a six-week “digital arrest” scam. In his case, it started on February 5 with a caller posing as a CBI official accusing him of being in touch with Mr. Goyal. Another caller, who identified himself as a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official, forced him to liquidate his fixed deposits and equity investments. The victim remained isolated in her room for days and transferred the money according to the fraudsters’ instructions. The fraud only came to light when his son visited during the Ugadi festival.
Why CBI intervention matters
Digital arrest fraud has emerged as one of the most damaging categories of cyber fraud in India, which mainly affects senior citizens. A government submission to the Supreme Court had earlier put the total losses from such scams at around ₹3,000 crore. Recognizing the scale of the problem, the Supreme Court gave the CBI a free hand in December 2025 to investigate not only the scams themselves, but also the bankers and the mule account networks that enable them, with the court saying “enough is enough”.
How the response developed
Since then, the Supreme Court has issued a number of interim directions, most recently in August 2026, in suo motu proceedings on victims of “digital arrest”. The orders followed reports on the status of India’s Cyber Crime Coordination Center that showed both progress and persistent shortcomings. The Grievance Redressal Mechanism now covers over 1.23 lakh branches of 69 banks and the refund mechanism covers 57 banks and all states and Union Territories, recovering around ₹18.05 crore in 36,290 cases so far.
To address the loopholes in the system, the Court ordered the RBI to issue a standard procedure for banks to freeze accounts linked to mule activity, along with safeguards such as delayed transaction mechanisms.
The CBI, on its part, has registered many cases of ‘digital arrests’, conducted several rounds of searches in several states and made many arrests. In June 2026, the agency raided more than 80 locations in 16 states in connection with more than 200 cases.
What happens next
The Supreme Court said the decline in reported fraud did not justify relaxing vigilance and called for constant monitoring. On 4 August 2026, the court issued a detailed order directing the Centre, states, RBI and telecom authorities to prepare a standard operating procedure to curb “digital arrest” scams and put in place mechanisms to redress the grievances of victims, initiate criminal proceedings through zero FIRs and restore monetary losses to victims in a time-bound manner.
Published – 05 Sep 2026 11:49 IST