Meghalaya High Court Judge Warns of Rising Cybercrimes: “Modern offences need no physical presence, cross borders instantly”

Shillong: Justice HS Thangkhiew of the MeghalayaHigh Court has cautioned that the nature of crime has fundamentally changed, with perpetrators no longer requiring physical proximity to victims and traditional evidence like eyewitnesses becoming rare in technology-driven offences.

Speaking at the inauguration of a two-day training programme titled “Cybercrime & the Court: Law, Evidence & Practice” organised by the Meghalaya State Judicial Academy, Justice Thangkhiew, who heads the academy, stressed that conventional investigative tools and courtroom procedures are increasingly inadequate to tackle the new wave of cyber threats.

“The recently enacted criminal laws – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam – have been deliberately designed to address jurisdictional challenges, transnational offences and the admissibility of electronic evidence,” he said, adding that these reforms are essential to keep the justice system in step with rapid technological advancement.

Highlighting the growing menace even in smaller cities, the judge cited a recent fraud case in Shillong where a lawyer lost ₹90,000 after receiving an AI-generated deepfake voice call impersonating her senior advocate. The money trail led to multiple phone numbers registered in Bihar and Haryana. One person arrested in the case turned out to be an innocent victim whose SIM card had been misused without his knowledge.

Justice Thangkhiew also drew attention to the collateral damage caused during investigations, pointing out that freezing of bank accounts – a common measure to stop siphoning of defrauded money – sometimes wrongly affects innocent account holders and disrupts their livelihoods.

The training programme, conducted in collaboration with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, aims to equip judicial officers with the latest knowledge on cybercrime trends and forensic handling of digital evidence.

Advocate Nisheeth Dixit, a noted cyber law expert, delivered sessions on the legal framework governing cyber offences and the correct appreciation and admissibility of electronic evidence in courts. Senior I4C cyber intelligence and forensics expert Deepak Kumar briefed participants on the national cybercrime reporting architecture, emerging threats and coordination mechanisms.

Expressing hope that such capacity-building initiatives will strengthen judicial response, Justice Thangkhiew underlined the critical role of the courts in adapting to an era where “a crime committed from one corner of the world can instantly victimise someone thousands of kilometres away.”

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