HC orders custodial interrogation of accused involved in siphoning off funds by misusing various mobile apps

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Read Order: Pawan Kumar vs. State of Haryana

Chandigarh, September 23, 2021: Keeping in view the enormity of the scam, wherein huge sum of money had been siphoned off by misusing various mobile applications, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed the petition filed by the petitioner seeking grant of anticipatory bail in a case registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and I.T. Act, 2008.

In the FIR it was alleged that on November 19,2020, police officials received a secret information to the effect that Sanjay alongwith his accomplices Ajay Kumar, Govind Singh, Vikas, Sanjay, Darshan and Harsh used to purchase activated SIMs of different companies against forged documents in large numbers in an illegal manner and after inserting the same in various mobile phones and laptops used to commit financial losses by way of frauds to various companies and thus made huge money in an illegal manner.

The information was further to the effect that the said persons at the given moment were present at Sherpura Bus Stand. Pursuant to receipt of said information, a raid was conducted at the nominated place and few of the accused persons were apprehended, who were found in possession of huge number of SIMs.

It was further alleged in the FIR that the aforesaid persons upon being asked could not produce any detail regarding ownership of the recovered mobile phones and the SIMs and did not give any satisfactory reply. Upon interrogation, they disclosed that they had been cheating various companies with the help of SIMs and mobile phones and had been earning huge money.

From the petitioner’s side it was submitted that the petitioner had nowhere been named in the FIR and was nominated subsequently on the basis of a disclosure statement allegedly made by co-accused Sanjay, wherein while admitting his guilt of having defrauded several companies with the help of large number of SIMs illegally procured, he stated that when he needed more SIMs he had contacted his friends Pawan Sihag (petitioner) and Azad Singh, who was also into this kind of work and who introduced him to Rajan and Rajat, who has a mobile shop at Jalalabad, and had purchased 2700 SIMs from Rajan.

It was also submitted that it was thus clearly evident that the petitioner had himself not indulged in any kind of fraud and had not cheated any company or any person and at best could be said to have sold some SIMs to the other accused in an illegal manner by taking some profit.

The Bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill was of the opinion that the petitioner was not named in the FIR and came to be nominated as an accused subsequently on the basis of the disclosure statement.

However, keeping in view the enormity of scam, wherein crores of rupees had been siphoned off by misusing various mobile applications through SIM cards illegally procured, the Bench held that custodial interrogation of the petitioner would certainly be required so as to unearth the entire modus operandi and to find out as to how many other persons are involved in this scam.

Thus, it was clarified that no special case was made out for grant of anticipatory bail.

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