'Prima Facie Material Shows Indians Were Trafficked Abroad': Bombay High Court Denies Bail To Alleged 'Mastermind' In Job Racket Case

The Bombay High Court recently refused to release a 46-year-old man on bail, who was booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for being the 'mastermind' of an international job racket, wherein educated youth from India were 'trafficked' abroad and were then forced to work in fake call centres in Laos and dupe Americans and Britishers by convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency.

A division bench of Justice Ajay Gadkari and Justice Shyam Chandak said that there was 'prima facie' case against Jerry Philips Jacob, the alleged mastermind of the racket, who hatched a 'criminal conspiracy' by forming a syndicate of several other accused persons for trafficking unemployed but reasonably educated youths from India under the guise of providing them a lawful employment in foreign companies.

"After trafficking them, they were caused to indulge in the acts of deceiving people of other countries for unlawful gains. Whenever the recruited victims/job seekers used to refuse to do the illegal online fraud work for the company and shown unwillingness for continuing the work, the arrested and wanted accused used to convince them to continue with the work to earn profit and promised that they will be promoted as 'Team Leader' in the LongSheng Company. If the victims still show their unwillingness to continue the illegal works, they were threatened of dire consequences. The victims were subjected to extortion for securing their release from the workplace and for facilitating their return to India. The alleged offence under Section 371 of IPC is punishable upto life imprisonment. The offence is serious in nature. It appears that, after release on bail, the Appellant is likely to abscond and tamper with the prosecution evidence. Therefore, we are not inclined to grant him bail," the judges said in the order passed on March 10.

According to the prosecution, Jacob, a resident of Mumbai, along with other co-accused, lured educated Indian youth and promised handsome salaries abroad and took them to Bangkok where with the help of Chinese nationals, these recruits would be taken to Laos by boat. Once the recruits reached the destination, the accused along with his associates, took away the passport and other documents from them and 'trafficked' them abroad, forced them to dupe foreigners by working in a call centre in Laos.

If the recruits refused to work, they would often be threatened of dire consequences and when they requested to return India, the accused demanded huge amounts in return to facilitate their travel back to India.

According to the Mumbai Police, it had received over 50 complaints against Jacob and his associates and thus, when they arrived in Mumbai from Laos in March 2024, they were arrested and continue to be in jail since then.

Jacob had moved the special NIA court seeking bail, however, his application was turned down by the special court on December 6, 2024. He therefore, petitioned Justice Gadkari's bench challenging the special court's order. However, the bench found no merit in the application and therefore, denied him bail by dismissing his plea.

Appearance:

Advocate Zoheb Shaikh appeared for the Appellant.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh along with Special Public Prosecutor Chintan Shah assisted by Advocate Adarsh Vyas represented the NIA.

Additional Public Prosecutor Manisha Mhatre represented the State.

Case Title: Jerry Philips Jacob vs National Investigation Agency (Criminal Appeal 558 of 2025)

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Bom) 98

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