More than 21,900 complaints of digital arrest fraud involving over ₹ 647 crore were registered in the first eight months of 2026 from January 1 to August 31, according to a status report filed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) before the Supreme Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the menace a year ago.
The task of giving publicity to the GRP has been entrusted by the court to all states, UTs, state legal services committees, and high courts. Except for Jharkhand, all states have established S4C, the status report stated. An online zero FIR mechanism for cybercrime complaints is also being rolled out, with Himachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Manipur and Nagaland yet to operationalise it. To operationalise the draft RBI SOP, its integration is necessary with the GRP and MRP.
At the time, the court was informed of 123,672 complaints involving ₹ 1,935 crore registered from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.In 2025, the complaints came down to 58,239 involving ₹ 1,211 crore between January 1 and December 31. The latest status report indicates that out of 93,041 grievances received on the portal in relation to cybercrimes and cyber frauds, the concerned law enforcement agencies have acted upon 60,638 grievances. On August 4, the top court had directed that similar to I4C, there should be a State Cybercrime Coordination Centre (S4C) for better coordination and expeditious action on complaints. The tentative timeline for its operationalisation is December 2026, subject to completion of the requisite technical development, integration, testing and implementation processes, the report submitted in court stated. The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to investigate digital arrest cases involving fraud of ₹ 10 crore or more. Since December 1, 2025, the agency has arrested more than 49 people and filed charge sheets against over 140, the report said.
The inter-departmental committee examining digital arrest fraud is also preparing a proposal on victim compensation and shared liability. A genuine individual victim lodging a complaint regarding fraudulent EBT involving gross loss up to ₹ 50,000 can receive a compensation of 85% of the net loss or ₹ 25,000, whichever is less, only once during the victim’s lifetime. To qualify for such compensation, the fraud must be reported to the bank and NCRP or the helpline 1930 within five calendar days of occurrence of fraud. The court will take up the matter on October 29.
