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The Supreme Court on Wednesday compared cyber criminals to “parasites” observing that people who dupe innocent citizens should be dealt with harshly as the interest of society is best maintained by keeping them imprisoned.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said, “You people are parasites,” as it dealt with a petition filed by one Manoj Kumar Singh, facing multiple cases of cyber fraud in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir.
Refusing to entertain Singh’s plea for clubbing the cases and seeking bail, the bench, also comprising justice V Mohana, said, “You people take money from investors and dupe them. We have to be very harsh on you. Society’s interest is there only when you are inside jail and not outside.”
The court noted the unique modus operandi followed by these accused who operate the crime in one area and then shift base continuously to evade arrest. “You are hardened criminals whose victims are spread pan-India. You cheat someone in Tamil Nadu and then go to Jammu.”
Singh stated in his petition that he has multiple cases pending against him in various states and anticipated more cases to be lodged against him in future. The Jammu Police and Tirupur police in Tamil Nadu had registered cases against him for cheating in March this year.
The bench headed by CJI Kant had taken suo motu cognisance in October 2025 of the digital arrest fraud cases and had adopted a tough stand against cyber fraudsters who dupe gullible citizens, particularly senior citizens, of their hard-earned savings by posing as law enforcement officers and flashing fabricated court orders.
In these proceedings, due to court’s intervention, states and Union territories had referred major cases of digital arrest fraud to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to facilitate the deeper inter-country and inter-continent links of such organised gangs. This matter is still pending in the top court to evolve effective preventive steps involving banks, telecom service providers and social media platforms to forewarn citizens of such frauds and redeeming the money transacted in the process.
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