India Supreme Court Demands Criminal Law for Digital…
India's Supreme Court has urged the government to criminalize digital arrest scams and deepfake fraud following billions in losses to citizens
- Incident date
- Jul 2026
- Target
- DY Chandrachud
The Supreme Court of India has formally called upon the Union government to enact dedicated legislation to criminalize digital arrest scams and the use of AI-generated deepfakes. This judicial intervention comes as the country faces a systemic crisis, with citizens losing approximately $5.52 billion to such fraud over a six-year period.
What happened
Digital arrest is a scripted fraud where criminals impersonate government officials from agencies like the CBI or Enforcement Directorate via video calls on platforms such as WhatsApp or Skype. Victims are falsely accused of involvement in crimes like money laundering and are placed under virtual custody, forced to remain on video until they pay to clear their names. Fraudsters often use studio sets, official uniforms, and sophisticated deepfake technology—produced using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)—to enhance their credibility.
A prominent example occurred in 2024 when SP Oswal, chairman of Vardhman, was defrauded of approximately $729,000. Criminals impersonated CBI officers and staged a mock virtual court hearing featuring a deepfake of then-Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to preside over the proceedings. Oswal remained on a Skype call for two days before transferring the funds, though local police later recovered roughly $547,000 of the total.
While India implemented the Information Technology Amendment Rules in February 2026 to regulate synthetically generated information on platforms, these rules act only as a distribution-layer intervention. They do not define digital arrest as a specific crime. Currently, prosecutors must rely on general statutes regarding extortion, cheating, and identity theft, which were drafted long before the advent of AI-generated synthetic media. The Supreme Court emphasized that because it cannot create new criminal offenses, the responsibility lies with parliament to draft a statute that explicitly categorizes digital arrest as a standalone, punishable crime.