Supreme Court stays Rajasthan HC order asking teacher to pay cost of police probe into ₹20 lakh cyber fraud

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Rajasthan High Court direction requiring a government school teacher who lost ₹20 lakh in a cyber fraud to bear the cost of the police investigation.

A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran was hearing a plea by the teacher challenging the observations made by the High Court while dismissing the bail applications of two accused in the case.

The High Court had held that the cyber fraud occurred because of the teacher's “greed”. It noted that the complainant, a government teacher earning more than ₹80,000 a month, had transferred ₹20 lakh to the accused after being lured with promises of higher returns.

During today's hearing, the counsel for the teacher said that he was aggrieved by certain paragraphs of the High Court's order, under which the investigation cost was directed to be recovered from the complainant.

Taking note of the submissions, the Court remarked in jest,

“High Court wanted you to pay the price for your own gullibility.”

The case arose from a first information report (FIR) registered in January 2026. The accused were alleged to have cheated the teacher in the name of an SBI Life insurance policy and obtained nearly ₹20 lakh from him through multiple transactions.

In its June 24 order, the Rajasthan High Court had said,

“The reason behind successful commission of most cyber crimes is the greed of people like the complainant herein, who, in expectation of earning unusual high returns/unclaimed money, etc., get trapped in such acts. To investigate the consequences of such greed, the State has no other option, but to put its machinery into motion, however, precious public money cannot be allowed to be expended in investigating such offences which, prima facie have occurred due to greed of such persons.”

The High Court had consequently directed the concerned Superintendent of Police to calculate the cost incurred in investigating the case and recover the amount from the teacher. It had further directed that the recovered amount be deposited in the Rajasthan Police Welfare Fund.

Today, counsel for the teacher contended that such orders could discourage victims from approaching the police in cyber fraud cases.

“Nobody will go to register an FIR in such cases if such precedents are set," he said.

Taking note of the submissions, the Court stayed the observations made by the High Court in the contested paragraphs. It also sought responses from the State and other private respondents.