A. Maruthupandian v. State
In the Madras High Court
Crl. O.P. (MD) 13280/2014
Before Justice N. Kirubakaran
Decided on August 1, 2014

Relevancy of the case: Transfer of FIR to CBCID’s special team for investigating a cyber crime

Statutes & Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 66)
• The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Section 420, 468, 471)
• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 482)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• An email was sent by the petitioner to the bank for the disbursement. During the process, the email of the petitioner was hacked by the culprits and the amount was taken stealthily.
• As soon as the petitioner came to know about the hacking done by the culprits, he filed a complaint under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 along with Section 420, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The respondent has not taken any action against the culprits due to lack of infrastructure even after the petitioner filed a case against them.
• A petition was filed by the petitioner in the Supreme Court to transfer the Crime No. 108 of 2014 on the file of the Kutralam Police Station to the CBCID who is the first respondent. It was also requested to direct a charge sheet to be filed within a specified time.

Opinion of the Bench

• This case appears to be a cyber crime and it has to be investigated by a special team which is available only with the CBCID. If the matter is investigated by the present police station, there will not be any progress and nothing can be achieved.

Final Decision

• The court allowed the petition and ordered the file to be transferred from Kutralam Police Station in Tirunelvelli to CBCID.

This case summary has been prepared by Afsana Khan, an undergraduate student at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in June/July 2020.