The Emergence of Digital Arrest: Navigating India’s Cyber Legal Landscape

Introduction

The topic of this article might have puzzled many. No digital arrest is not a new form of police arrest. Rather, it is a new type of cyber fraud. The internet is perhaps one of man’s greatest creations. It has enormously benefitted humans, but at the same time, like every good thing, it has been misused a lot. Cybercrime is not a new term in this digital age. It refers to the usage of computers for attaining illegal ends.¹  After the IT revolution in the 1990s, computers penetrated every aspect of life.²  However, the impact could not limit itself only to positive uses; it also influenced crime and criminals. Today, cybercrime is one of the most emerging forms of criminal behaviour. Digital arrest is one of the new forms of cybercrime that has emerged in the present times. Due to its new nature, it needs analysis from the perspective of laws in India.

Explaining Digital Arrest

As mentioned above, a digital arrest is one of the newest forms of cybercrime. Even the author of the article didn’t know about it until randomly reading about it in a news article. The article mentioned the story of a 23-year-old girl who got scammed of Rs. 2.5 lakh after falling prey to the fraud.³ Basically, a digital arrest is a new type of scam where cheaters impersonate law enforcement officials such as police and deceive individuals. The scammers make the victims believe that they will be arrested on account of fabricated charges. To prevent the arrest, the victim ends up paying money to settle the issue.⁴

As is evident from the specifications above, the method used in digital arrest is not entirely new. The impersonation of public servants is a very old concept, and scamming people by such means is not entirely new.⁵ But what is new about digital arrest and what links it with cyber law is that it involves the usage of the internet. Basically, the scam is mainly done online, and the victims are threatened with arrest online. The usage of video messages, video calls, or any other mode of the internet is essential to digital arrest. Without such measure, the crime committed may be an offence but can’t specifically be digital arrest. The usage of video calls in digital arrests is to create a sense of urgency and fear among people. The scammers manipulate the victims through false evidence and threatening language, thereby scamming the victims into sending them money.⁶

Law Relating to Digital Arrest in India

The Indian Parliament enacted the Information Technology Act in 2000 to regulate electronic means of transactions.⁷ The Act also created new offences related to online transactions but didn’t lay down a comprehensive list of all the offences. Therefore, in present-day India, most cybercrimes are still punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 170 of the IPC provides, “Whoever pretends to hold any particular office as a public servant, knowing that he does not hold such office or falsely personates any other person holding such office, and in such assumed character does or attempts to do any act under colour of such office, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”⁸ As the cybercriminals in digital arrest masquerade as police officers and thereafter, threaten to arrest people, they can be tried under this Section.

Section 383 of the IPC deals with the offence of extortion. As per the Section, “Whoever intentionally puts any person in fear of any injury to that person, or to any other, and thereby dishonestly induces the person so put in fear to deliver to any person any property, or valuable security or anything signed or sealed which may be converted into a valuable security, commits “extortion”.”⁹ As seen above, in digital arrest, a fearful environment is created due to the threat of an illegal arrest. Under such a threat, the victim transfers the money to the scammers, and therefore the offence of extortion is committed.

The main Section of IPC that can be referred to in such time is Section 415, which deals with cheating. As per Section 415, “Whoever, by deceiving any person, fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person so deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to consent that any person shall retain any property, … is said to cheat.”¹⁰ In digital arrest, there is fraudulent deception of the victim by the scammer by making the victim believe that the scammer is a police officer. Under such deception, the victim is induced to deliver the property, which fulfills the essentials of cheating. These are only a few Sections of the IPC dealing with this menace. People need to keep these main Sections in mind while filing a complaint against these fraudsters.

Dealing with Digital Arrest

Learning the law is all fine and good, but the major weapon available to these scammers is the ignorance of people. It is easy for lawyers, judges, or law students to ridicule common people for falling prey to these scams. But we need to understand that not everyone in India is literally literate. Therefore, it becomes important for the stakeholders to educate the people. People need to understand that public officials have to follow protocols and cannot randomly do anything. The first step for many people to protect themselves from digital arrest would be reading this article. Apart from this article, people need to keep themselves updated with news. Cybercrimes are evolving rapidly, and people need to be updated to prevent them.