As digital frauds siphoned off Rs 54,000 crore, the Supreme Court on Monday termed it as “absolute robbery or dacoity” and asked the Centre to draft a standard operating procedure (SOP) in consultation with the RBI, banks and the Department of Telecommunications to deal with the menace.A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant noted that the amount siphoned off through digital fraud was larger than the budgets of many small states. Observing that such offences could occur due to either collusion or negligence on the part of bank officials, the top court stressed the need for timely action by the RBI and banks.MHA forms inter-ministerial panelIn a bid to crack down on the rising menace of ‘digital arrests’, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has informed the Supreme Court that it has constituted a high-level inter-departmental committee (IDC) to eliminate systemic gaps and ensure real-time protection for cybercrime victims.Noting that the RBI has prepared a SOP directing banks to temporarily block debit cards to prevent cyber-enabled fraud, the court asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to examine it, along with similar SOPs or decisions of the Department of Telecommunications, and come up with a draft MoU within four weeks to effectively deal with such offences.The Supreme Court asked the RBI, the DoT and others to jointly hold a meeting to come up with a framework for providing compensation in digital arrest cases. It said a pragmatic and liberal approach was needed to deal with the award of compensation to digital arrest victims and posted the plea for a further hearing after four weeks.It also asked the authorities to file fresh status reports by the next date of hearing.The top court directed the CBI to identify digital arrest cases and asked the Gujarat and Delhi Governments to accord sanction to the federal probe agency to go ahead with the investigations in the identified digital arrest cases.On December 16 last year, the Bench had asked the Centre to look into the suggestions put forward by the amicus curiae in ensuring compensation to victims of digital arrests, while voicing its concern over the enormous amounts taken out from the country by cyber criminals.