Practice Of Duping Innocent People On Pretext Of Sending Them Abroad 'Rampant': Punjab And Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has observed that the practice of duping innocent people on the pretext of sending them abroad is rampant and the same is required to be curbed with an iron hand to save such innocent people.The bench of Justice Ashok Kumar Verma observed thus while hearing an anticipatory bail plea filed by a woman who has been booked for cheating and criminal conspiracy charges under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC.As per the allegations levelled by complainant/Harpreet Singh, Accused Sarabjit Kaur and her co-accused Arshdeep Singh cheated him by taking a sum of Rs. 17 lacs from him on the pretext of sending him and his wife to France and thereafter, stopped taking his phone calls. Hence, the instant case was lodged.On the other hand, Accused argued before the Court that she had been dragged in the matter without any connecting evidence against her and she was being implicated only on the basis that the amount had been transferred into the account of her son. Having heard the counsels for the parties, the Court opined that the applicant/petitioner has been specifically named in the FIR and there are specific allegations against her and at her instance, the complainant deposited the aforesaid amount in the account of her son. The Court further observed that there are serious allegations of cheating and fraud and prima facie involvement of the petitioner in the commission of offence in connivance with other co-accused is writ large and even the tecovery is yet to be made. In this view of the matter, the Court did not deem it a fit case for grant of concession of anticipatory bail to the petitioner as it noted that her custodial interrogation is necessary for complete and effective investigation. Consequently, denying her anticipatory bail, the Court made the following observations:"Needless to say, such type of cheating, duping and fraud is rampant in our society and is often adopted by fraudsters and unscrupulous persons on pretext of sending innocent people abroad and thereby duping them. This has become a cakewalk to amass wealth illegally over night which needs to be curbed with an iron hand to save the innocent people."Case title - Sarabjit Kaur v. State of Punjab [CRM-M-52017-2022]Case Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (PH) 297Click Here To Read/Download Order

Practice Of Duping Innocent People On Pretext Of Sending Them Abroad 'Rampant': Punjab And Haryana High Court

Sparsh Upadhyay

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