Immigration Fraud, Chandigarh Man Facing 377 Complaints Gets Bail.
News Source:- Accused had approached HC seeking bail and argued that he was arrested in April 2018 and has remained behind bars ever since. The HC took note of the tardy pace of investigation while granting bail to the Chandigarh man.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has allowed bail to a Chandigarh resident accused of duping 377 people on the pretext of sending them abroad.
The accused, Arvind Ashat, was initially booked in March 2017 on the complaint of one Rupinder Singh Grewal, who alleged that he had paid ₹4.94 lakh to him to arrange visas for students who wished to pursue studies abroad, but was cheated. The case was registered under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector-3 police station.
Ashat had approached the high court on July 19 seeking bail and argued that he was arrested in April 2018 and has remained behind bars ever since.
Chandigarh Police told the court that five challans covering 14 complainants have been filed against Ashat so far and another supplementary challan has been prepared after conducting inquiry into three more complaints. In all, there are 377 complaints against him, the court was told.
The HC bench of justice TS Dhindsa observed that seeing the tardy pace, wherein only 17 of the 377 complaints have been looked into, it appears the investigation might not be concluded for another couple of years.
“The factual premise that investigation is in progress would not be a ground to keep the petitioner indefinitely in custody and particularly keeping in view the slow pace of investigation. The amount of money which is alleged to have been taken by the petitioner on account of having duped the investors/complainants would be a subject matter of trial on the basis of evidence adduced,” the court said.
It added that bail can’t be denied to the petitioner on the demand of the complainants that certain amount be first refunded to them, since he has been behind bars for over three years now.