New Delhi [India], December 4 : The Saket District Court has recently granted bail to an employee of a call centre who allegedly duped several US citizens. Delhi police had busted an alleged illegal call centre in Mehrauli's Satbari last month. An FIR was registered on November 20, and the accused has been in custody since then.
Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Nirmala Singh granted bail to the accused Pranav, subject to furnishing a bail bond of Rs. 50,000 and a surety bond in the like amount. The court has imposed some conditions upon the accused.
While granting bail, the court observed, "The object of bail is to secure the presence of the accused during trial and not to punish him before conviction."
"Pre-trial detention must not assume a punitive character. Therefore, keeping the applicant further in incarceration will not serve any fruitful purpose," JMFC Nirmala Singh said in the order passed on November 28.
While granting bail, the court noted that the evidence against the applicant is largely documentary in nature and based on the electronic records which are already seized by the I0.
"Moreover, the Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) and the Investigation Officer (IO) have submitted that the witnesses are mainly of USA citizens; therefore, the chance of their inducement is bleak at this stage," the court noted.
While arguing on the bail plea, Advocate Abhishek Chauhan, counsel for the accused, argued that he has nothing to do with the alleged call centre from where the applicant was arrested during the raid.
Counsel further argued that the accused has been wrongly framed in the present case, and the evidence is documentary and electronic in nature.
On the other hand, APP opposed the bail plea and submitted that the accused had worked as a telecaller and had cheated several USA citizens, which is evident from the data collected from the laptop and mobile phone.
It was further submitted that the identity of the witness in the present case could not be ascertained from the investigation so far. However, it has come to record that the victims are mainly citizens of the USA.
The investigation shall take substantial time to ascertain the details of the wrongful loss and the identity of the victims, the APP added.
As per the FIR, Call operators were making calls impersonating themselves as Pop-ups, Microsoft and iOS (Apple) Tech Supporters. It also came to the notice of the police that fraudsters are engaged in using illegal techniques, VOIP calling, bypassing the legal International Long Distance (ILD) Gateways and thus causing wrongful loss to the Government Exchequer and wrongful gain to themselves.
Police have stated that they were also using software like Xlite and Eye Beam Dialers and were cheating innocent people based in the USA on the pretext of providing them technical support against their queries regarding pop-ups, Microsoft and Apple iPhone.