New Delhi, Jan. 24 -- The Supreme Court on Friday voiced concern over the growing instances of digital arrest fraud, observing how even educated and experienced senior citizens were being misled into complying with the demands of such fraudsters A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said, "We are shocked at how people are behaving. When this kind of call comes, you are simply accepting their dictation. Generally, with age, you learn so much and you gain experience also." The comments came while issuing notice on a petition filed by 78-year old former banker Naresh Malhotra who became a victim of a digital arrest fraud in September last year, losing over Rs.23 crore in one of the largest such cases reported so far. HT had first reported the case, followed by Malhotra's detailed interview sharing his ordeal. The petition sought guidelines for banks to prevent such scams, including alerts in cases of suspicious high-value transactions, among other reliefs that are already being considered by the top court in a suo motu proceeding. On going through the facts of the present petition, the bench said, "We feel so disappointed how a person can lose their sense on getting such calls." However, the court tagged the matter along with the suo motu proceeding, which is also being heard by a CJI-led bench. While initiating the suo motu matter, the court took note of a letter received from a senior citizen couple defrauded of over Rs.1 crore by scammers posing as enforcement officers. The court had then noted that mostly retired senior citizens are being targeted and defrauded of crores of rupees, virtually wiping away their entire life savings. In the suo motu matter, the court has transferred all similar digital fraud cases to be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Centre has also formed a high powered committee to consult all stakeholders to further strengthen the mechanism to ensure police, banks, telecom operators and social media intermediaries can act in a coordinated manner to prevent such cases. Senior advocate K Parmeshwar, assisted by advocate Nupur Sharma, appeared for Malhotra and told the court that the petitioner is a widower and was recovering from knee surgery at the time of the incident, with his children settled abroad Parmeshwar said, "There is some duty of care which banks owe to their account holders. This petition has got prayers for getting compensation from banks for failure to take due care. But, I have advised the petitioner to separately address those issues before the national consumers disputes redressal commission (NCDRC)." In response, the court said, "In the main suo motu matter, we have taken note of the possibility of involvement of bank officials and have asked CBI to examine this aspect. But, what we do not understand is that a person, who is 78-years-old; how can he allow crores of rupees to be taken out from his account? When this kind of call comes, you accept whatever they dictate to you." Parmeshwar said that the amount Malhotra lost is the highest for a digital arrest fraud case in Delhi. "These are not random people getting your access. They contacted him on the landline and in a planned way targeted him after getting all details of his family and their investments," he said. "This should automatically trigger an audit by the banks. My problem is that the entire amount has been transferred through mule accounts held in seven banks with which I have no legal relationship. But, such high volume transactions should trigger suspicion. But, since I have no account in these banks, I have no remedy against them." The court permitted Parmeshwar to pursue some of the remedies in his petition against banks before the consumer forum. For the other issues, the matter was fixed for hearing along with the suo motu matter. On August 1 last year, Malhotra got the first call on his landline that triggered a chain of events in the fraud case, with the former banker being shown an "arrest order from Mumbai Police" on WhatsApp. In the call, the fraudsters, posing as officers of Mumbai Police and Enforcement Directorate (ED), alleged that Malhotra's Aadhaar card details had been misused to bankroll arms for the Pulwama attack and asked him to transfer money from all his investments and bank accounts to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Over the next month, Malhotra sold his assets and shares, and transferred close to Rs.23 crore to 16 bank accounts he supposedly believed were of RBI....