Cyber-Crimes Proliferating At Alarming Rate: Delhi High Court Denies Relief To Man Booked For Hacking Lawyer's Phone, Duping Him Of Money

The Delhi High Court has recently observed that in today’s digital era, cyber-crimes are proliferating at an alarming rate and that such offences are neither bound by border restrictions due to their global reach, nor do they discriminate among their victims.

Observing that cyber-crimes target the elderly, young, businesses as well as the governments in the digital landscape, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said, “The consequences of cyber-crimes go beyond individual boundaries, impacting numerous unsuspecting victims.”

The court made the observations while refusing to quash a cheating case registered against a man at Cyber Police Station South East Delhi. The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint made by a lawyer alleging that a caller hacked his mobile and had defrauded him of Rs.50,000.

It was the accused’s case that no offence was disclosed against him in the FIR as none of the mobile numbers mentioned therein belong to him.

He also contended that there was nothing to suggest in the prosecution’s status report that there was any intention on his part to commit the alleged offence and that no role was attributed to him.

Perusing the material placed on record, the court observed that the case extended beyond the realm of a mere private dispute arising out of any commercial transaction or simple misdemeanour.

“A bare reading of the FIR, details of which have already been discussed in the preceding paragraphs, prima facie reveals commission of cyber-crime/cyber-fraud whereby the amount was surreptitiously debited from the bank account of complainant while he was having a conversation with an individual presenting himself as a customer care executive, who had called the complainant from a mobile number,” the court said.

Furthermore, Justice Sharma noted that the investigation so far revealed that a huge amount of Rs. 28.17 crores has been credited to the bank account of the accused and that it was to be investigated whether the money was obtained through such illegal and fraudulent means and whether there were other victims of such cyber-fraud.

“The gravity of such allegations cannot be undermined, as they not only jeopardize the financial security and trust of individuals on financial payment gateways/platforms, but also potentially expose the broader public to similar threats,” the court said.

The court observed that neither the allegations in the FIR were absurd or improbable nor it could be held at that no offence was disclosed against the accused.

“Therefore, considering the nature of the offence, the modus operandi adopted by the accused as discernible from the contents of FIR which indicates towards commission of a cyber-fraud, and the possibility of more victims having fallen pray to such cyber-fraud for which investigation is being carried out by the investigating agency, this Court does not deem it appropriate to quash the present FIR, when even the investigation has not been complete and chargesheet has yet not been prepared and filed,” the court said.

Advocates Malak Manish Bhatt and Ananya K appeared for the petitioner.

ASC Amol Sinha appeared for the State along with Advocates Kshitiz Garg, Ashvini Kumar and Chavi Lazarus.

Title: ACHAL RANA v. GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI & ANR.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 856