JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. A. Chaudhury, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. D.P. Goswami, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the respondent State of Assam.

2. By this application under Section 438, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [CrPC], the petitioners viz. [1] Sofior Rahman, [2] Zakir Hussain and [3] Ashraful Alom have approached this Court seeking the benefit of pre-arrest bail, apprehending their arrest, in connection with Bilasipara Police Station Case no. 350/2022, registered for offences punishable under Sections 120B/420/409/384, Indian Penal Code [IPC] for the second occasion after rejection of their earlier pre-arrest bail applications, A.B. no. 3494/2022 & A.B. no. 3584/2022, by a common order dated 22.12.2022, after perusal of the materials in the case diary produced on that date by the learned Additional Public Prosecutor.

3. The pre-arrest bail application, A.B. no. 3494/2022 under Section 438, CrPC was preferred on behalf of three petitioners with the petitioner no. 3 herein as the petitioner no. 1 therein and the petitioner no. 1 herein as the petitioner no. 3 therein. The pre-arrest bail application, A.B. no. 3584/2022 under Section 438, CrPC was preferred by the petitioner no. 2 herein.

4. On 22.12.2022, apart from the afore-mentioned two applications, two other applications, B.A. no. 3482/2022 [Jamser Ali @ Md. Jamsher Ali vs. The State of Assam] and A.B. no. 3735/2022 [Abu Hussain vs. The State of Assam], were also taken up for consideration. All the applications had arisen out of Bilasipara

Police Station Case no. 350/2022.

5. The events which led to the institution of the First Information Report [FIR] in connection with Bilasipara Police Station Case no. 350/2022 by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, Dhubri on 15.11.2022, were as under :-

5.1. The First Information Report [FIR] in connection with Bilasipara Police Station Case no. 350/2022 was lodged by the Deputy Superintendent of Police [DSP], Dhubri on 15.11.2022 mentioning, the names of all the petitioners herein along with the remaining petitioners in the bail application and one Taufiqur Rahman, who is the son of the accused-petitioner in B.A. no. 3482/2022.

5.2. As per the FIR, a secret information was received at around 11-45 a.m. on 15.11.2022 to the effect that some irregularities were going on at Barkanda Peoples Academy Higher Secondary School, one of the centres for ASOS examination. On receipt of the information, the informant apprised his senior officials and as per the instruction received, he proceeded towards the place of occurrence i.e. Barkanda Peoples Academy Higher Secondary School along with deputed staff immediately. When the team led by the informant reached the centre, students were found trying to carry their mobile phones inside the examination centre. The informant instructed the police personnel who had gone with him, to take the mobile phones from the students appearing in the examination. When the mobile phones were checked, it was found that the candidates were using WhatsApp application in their mobile phones for the purpose of cheating. It came to the notice that different WhatsAppgroups were created for different subject papers. It was found that two mobile phones bearing SIM numbers – [i] 9577131508, and [ii] 6002978390 – belonged to the Administrator of the WhatsAppgroups and through them, answers scripts with answers to the questions for different subjects were shared during the hours of the examination. On completion of the examination of 15.11.2022, the informant brought 14 nos. of mobile phones of the candidates to Nayahat Outpost and upon examination of those mobile phones, incriminating informations were revealed.

5.3. As per the FIR, the accused person, Jamser Ali [the accused-petitioner in B.A. no. 3482/2022], had extorted money through PhonePe registered in his mobile no. 7002416551. The other mobile no. 9577131508 belonged to the other Administrator of the WhatsAppgroups. It is found that the answer