Rs 100 crore cyber fraud: Two accused move application for discharge, say falsely implicated

In the application, the accused contended that the perusal of the report under section 173 (2) Cr.P.C. would show that the same has been presented under section 420, 120-B IPC and Section 66 of IT Act. None of the ingredients of all these sections are present in this case. There is no “person” who has been induced or cheated. There is nothing on record to show that the applicants/accused have derived any “wrongful gain” or any person has suffered any “wrongful loss” at the hands of the applicants/accused. Thus, in the absence of any fraudulent or dishonest inducement of some “person” and further, in the absence of any “wrongly gain” or “wrongful loss” to anybody, no offence under the sections is made out at all.

“Thus, even if all the allegations levelled in the FIR or the police report under section 173(2) Cr.P.C. are believed to be true, even then no offence is made out against the applicants/accused,” the application stated.

The application read, “The applicants were only the employees of the company and have nothing to do with the working of the company. The salary has been paid on the due dates and the applicants had no role to play in the day to day affairs of the company. The FIR is nothing but an abuse of process of law. The perusal of the FIR would show that the information was received by the investigating officer at 2:50 AM and without complying with the directions issued by the Supreme Court of India.”

The application further stated that the only purpose of registration of the FIR was the extraneous consideration expected by the complainant/investigating officer. In the present case, there is no victim at all. The investigating officer just to extort money from the directors and employees of the company registered the false FIR on the fabricated allegations. Four persons were arrested and huge money was demanded for not torturing them in police remand. Further, all other employees were blackmailed with the threat of arrest.

It was also alleged that the registration of such like FIR for some personal gains of the investigating officers seriously causes hindrance to the aim and objective of the government to provide ease of business.

“Due to such fear of implication in false cases and lawlessness, many new start-ups change their base from the state to some another state. Such FIRs have far-reaching consequences in the growth and development of the state. All the factors collectively show that the present FIR is a sheer abuse of process of law. Thus, is liable to be quashed and the continuance of trial in aforesaid FIR is purely an abuse of process of law,” the accused stated in the application.

The then investigating officer (IO) of the case, Inspector Amanjot Kaur, had written a letter to the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) to transfer the investigation of the case either to the Bureau of Investigation (BoI) or to the State Cyber Cell. DGP Gaurav Yadav formed a new Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) V Neerja and Inspector General of Police (IG) Dhanpreet Kaur and Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Parekh as its members.

The woman officer made serious allegations against an IPS officer and her husband in her complaint alleging interference in the investigation and favouring the accused. Inspector Amanjot Kaur was the in-charge of the district cyber cell at the time of the registration of the case.

The case was registered after the Cyber Cell of the district police raided a house on January 9 in Sector 108 on the basis of the secret information. Police registered the FIR alleging that Kapooria was running an illegal call centre and duping the people abroad.