Two men held for ‘posing as MHA official to mislead CII’ get bail

Following which the Special Cell arrested two persons, Prabhakar Kumar and co-accused Peter Fernandes. Both were later granted bail by the court.

The prosecution claimed that Kumar and Fernandes were hired by one Vihaan who engaged them to fix a meeting with the complainant.

Additional Public Prosecutor RK Bhati while opposing their bail had alleged that the said meeting was “fixed with the complainant as one Pawan Munjal who is the owner of Hero MotoCorp has been named as proposed President of CII.”

“Since some Income Tax raid was affected on him in the past, therefore for the purpose of clearing all the obstacles to become a President and to show his support by Government India, both the accused persons went to meet the complainant…” the prosecutor told the court.

“For the purpose of meeting with him (DG CII), he (Vihaan) used a software through which he spoofed the call, and made the call to the complainant in the name of Saket Kumar, personal secretary of MHA,” the prosecutor further added.

The prosecution submitted that this meeting was fixed on 17 May, 2022 however, prior to the meeting, the “complainant made a call to verify from the Home Ministry and it was revealed that no such call was made.”

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Khanagwal had on June 22 observed that “IO has not investigated till date, Pawan Munjal on whose behalf the accused persons were hired by co-accused Vihaan.”

The court had noted that no other information was to be obtained from the applicant even as the Investigating Officer (IO) submitted that there is apprehension of tampering of evidence.

The court also noted that data related to the spoofed call was recovered and the call detail record to show that the call was made to the complainant was also recovered.

The company has said that they deny any association with the accused. “We are unaware of the matter and categorically deny any association with this,” the company spokesperson said.

On March 23, the Income Tax Department had conducted raids at Hero MotoCorp’s premises. Days after the raids were launched, the tax department, in a March 31 statement, had said it conducted a search and seizure operation on a “leading automobile manufacturer group.”

Hero MotoCorp issued a statement terming the exercise a “routine inquiry, which is not uncommon before the end of the financial year”.

Munjal was announced CII president-designate on May 12. In July, he stepped down as president-designate citing domestic and global business commitments.