Delhi court rejects bail plea of accused held in cyber fraud for duping US senior citizens worth Rs 5 crores

New Delhi [India], June 29 : Delhi's Patiala House Court has recently dismissed the bail plea of one of the accused of committing cyber fraud who duped United States senior citizens worth Rs. 5 crores on the pretext of providing tech support with the laptops.

The accused persons committed the alleged offence by impersonating as workers of 'Geek Squad' which is a tech support company in the US. The gang has been recently busted by the Delhi Police who arrested five accused from Kolkata, Bhuvneshwar and Delhi.

This matter came to light after Jose Antonio and another US citizen approached the US embassy in New Delhi. An FIR was lodged through his attorney.

According to the FIR, the accused persons deceived the victim by saying that their bank accounts etc. had been hacked and asked them to transfer the money to the safe accounts number provided by the accused persons.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria dismissed the bail application of Amit Singh after considering the facts and circumstances and the manner in which the alleged offence was committed.

"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, nature, gravity and manner of commission of the offence and the alleged role of accused Amit Singh and that the investigation is at the initial stage, no ground is made out for grant of bail," the CMM said in the order passed on June 26.

Advocate Harsh Kumar and Shivalika Midha appeared on behalf of the complainant Jose Antonio and his friend in the matter.

The counsel for the accused stated that the applicant/accused was arrested on June 21 and then sent to two days of police custody (PC) remand.

The accused's counsel also submitted that nothing has been recovered from the possession of the accused and if anything is shown to be recovered by the police, the same has been planted by the police.

He has been falsely implicated in the present case on the basis of false and concocted stories and there is no evidence against the applicant to justify his arrest in the present case, the counsel argued.

On the other hand bail application was opposed by the Additional public prosecutor (APP) for the State and by the IO on the ground that the gravity of the offence is very high as they have cheated senior citizens for more than INR 5 crores (6,25,000/- USD).

APP submitted that the level of conspiracy, preparation, knowledge and then execution of crime shows that they have acquired high skill to cheat/deceive the gullible elderly citizens and in every likelihood, they will use this skill for continuing such crime to make easy money.

The prosecution said that all digital evidence is fragile in nature and be manipulated remotely by the accused persons.

Delhi police stated that they have earned huge money out of this business of crime which may be used to further influence the witnesses. That investigation is at the initial stage and a lot of investigation is yet to be conducted.

It was submitted that there are chats available on their mobile phone to prove their culpability. considering the grounds, gravity and seriousness of the offences, the present application may be dismissed.