The Supreme Court has praised the government of Tamil Nadu for exercising its proactive role in invoking the provisions of the preventive detention laws to counter the rising menace of cybercrime. The bench, which consists of Justices Sandeep Mehta and Joymalya Bagchi, called it a welcome method and pointed out that the conventional criminal provisions have not worked out to curb the menace of increasing online financial frauds.
These observations were made in the case when a petition was being agitated by the father of Abhijeet Singh, who was being held in custody under the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act of 1982 or the Goondas Act. As a part of a cybercrime, Singh is accused of cheating a female of 84.5 lakhs. This order of preventive detention was made under the authority of the Theni District Collector, who had ordered the detention on August 23, 2024, after receiving a complaint from the Cyber Crime Branch. Investigations found out that Singh was reportedly also a part of a larger, organized Internet crime network and had laundered more than 12 lakh rupees by means of companies registered in his and his family members’ names.
The court was aware of the drastic economic and emotional effects of cyber frauds and lauded Tamil Nadu state to use preventive detention as a special tool in regulating the crimes. In its submission, the state emphasised the severity of the offence and asserted that the probe had resulted in the recovery of 44,000 of cash, over 100 credit/debit cards, five mobile phones, and 27 bank accounts, 17 of which were due to similar scamming activities in India.
The pleadings that were put forward by Singh were that the case of cyber fraud was an isolated case, and his client, who had never had a criminal record, was not being punished enough since he was on preventive detention. Nevertheless, the court explained that it was unable to shorten the detention period in writ jurisdiction unless the whole detention order is proved to be ungrounded. The case will now be adjourned to June 25 to hear further.
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