Scammed or scared?

A numbing fear of law enforcement lies behind India’s digital arrest travesty

Alok Tiwari

When reports came in last week of a 72-year-old Mumbai businessman having lost Rs 58 crore to ‘digital arrest’ scam, they were shocking only because of scale of this case. The scamsters, posing as officials of ED and CBI, told the victim his name had cropped up in a money laundering case. The poor guy gave his life’s savings to scamsters over two months. In this case, the police were able to nab seven people, including the alleged kingpin from Gujarat, and freeze some of the scammed amount in bank accounts leading to hope that the victim might get it back. However, that is a rarity. In most cases, the money just disappears within hours through a maze of accounts and often ends up abroad where local police cannot reach. If the amount involved is small, the police often do not even attempt to recover it.

Numerous citizens have lost significant sums in the last few years to this scam. A government report estimates that the total amount siphoned off from victims so far is Rs 2580 crore. The cases apparently tripled during 2022-24 period. Now, cyber criminals use all manner of ways to relieve their victims of their money. Scamming through digital arrest should be least likely of ways in which they succeed. This is because there is no provision of digital arrest in any law. Even a person with normal general knowledge should know this. Yet not only is this mode common, but its victims are mostly educated persons and professionals, including current or former businessmen, bankers, academics, defence officers, and even some policemen.

What gives? Why does a mere phone call unnerves even an educated person who has done no wrong and has Rs 60 crore in the bank? Why do such persons not talk back or approach a lawyer or ask the person calling to come and meet them personally? Why do they not walk into the office of such agency and demand to see original documents of the case? Why do they not raise a stink right away?

The answer, in a word, is fear. In India, most citizens live in mortal fear of law enforcement. This is borne out of the knowledge that any law enforcement agency can make their life miserable at any time. Them being innocent or not is irrelevant. Even a police constable can cause insufferable pain to an absolutely upright person and rarely suffer any consequence. So, for most people, the one rule in life is to avoid entanglement with law enforcement at any level and at any cost. They know asserting innocence in courts will be at the very least expensive and most likely futile. Hence, the desire to pay their way out of trouble.

This fear comes from having a history of having an all-powerful state. A façade of rule of law only came with the British. But they too put needs of the state above people’s rights. That has continued well into the Independence. Our founding fathers, though committed to democracy, feared disbanding of republic through internal disturbances. Hence, they kept many of the draconian colonial laws on the statute book. Subsequent governments only added laws that expand the state power and erode citizens’ rights. On top of it, a broken judicial system means no quick redressal. For the courts merely having serious charges slapped is enough justification for continued deprivation of liberty.

Many laws from the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) to Defence of India Rules to more recent UAPA and PMLA provide for long periods of detention without judicial review. The judiciary frequently looks the other way when persons are kept in custody not just for days and weeks but for months and years without trial. None of these laws talk about fixing accountability on any individual officer or a minister even if it turns out an innocent person was unjustly detained.

Forget elite central agencies, even local police can take away your liberty with flimsiest of excuse. They can and do stop a citizen’s car or search one’s home without a warrant and obligation to show sufficient cause. They can not only detain a person but also eliminate him in dubious encounters which would never be probed honestly. It has only become worse in recent years. The very name of these agencies strikes fear in the minds of even the powerful. Imagine the effect it will have on an ordinary citizen. It is easy to lose nerve and all reason.

The implications of this go beyond merely preventing digital arrest scams. They have to do with having a nation where citizens can live without fear. A society where law enforcement is meant to protect people and not harass them. Citizens doing their best to avoid contact with government agencies is not healthy. The agencies should inspire confidence, not fear. Citizens should believe if they are wrongly implicated, they will be able to get justice.

Merely carrying out awareness campaigns about cybercrimes is window dressing. We need to instil belief in citizens that their rights are safe. This should begin by placing a premium on personal liberties. Every law should have clear and stringent protection against its misuse. Officials should realize that an arrest is not to be carried out casually. It should be following a due process that involves a judicial evaluation of prima facie evidence. Even a single case of unjustified denial of liberty should be severely dealt with.

The courts should go beyond paying lip service to personal freedom and enforce it strictly. People should have quick and easy remedy. This will require a total rethink of the way citizens relate with the state. It will require reversing the very philosophy of governance, from being pro-state to being pro-people. Only then will ordinary citizens be able to stand up to domineering officials, real or fake.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Oct 23, 2025