JUDGMENT

Harsh Bunger, J. (Oral)

Petitioner (Ankush Bassi) has filed the present petition under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking grant of regular bail in case bearing FIR No. 302 dated 17.12.2022, under Sections 420 , 467, 468, 471, 120 B IPC, 1860 and under Sections 66C and 66D of Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 ( Sections 467 , 468, 471 IPC deleted later on) registered at Police Station Division No. 8, District Police Commissionerate, Ludhiana.

2. Status report by way of affidavit dated 29.06.2023 of Ms. Jasroop Kaur Batth (IPS) ACP, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, District Police Commissionerate Ludhiana, has been filed on behalf of State of Punjab, which is already on record.

3. Custody certificate dated 03.07.2023 of the petitioner is filed by learned State counsel in the Court today which is taken on record subject to all just exceptions.

4. Briefly, the aforesaid FIR was registered on the basis of a secret information received by Swaran Chand, Assistant Sub Inspector, Police Station Division No.8, Ludhiana that Ankush Bassi s/o Janak Raj Bassi (petitioner), Ketan Sood, Sachu Subhash, Jobanpreet Singh, Pranav Arora, Ritik Kalra, Kapil Walia, Manwinderpal Singh, Reshav Singh, Manpreet Singh, Rohit Thakur, Abhiraj Singh, Japandeep Singh in connivance with their companions were running a call centre and misleading the citizens of other countries via internet by pretending that they belong to Paypal platform and are members of Customer Support Centre. Thereafter, they used to send them the messages that the amount has been deducted from their account(s) by the Bank and further used to provide a toll free number with the assurance that the amount will be returned to their account(s). It was further stated that these persons were making calls and playing frauds by way of redeeming gift cards of other persons. It was also stated that the aforesaid Ankush Bassi (petitioner herein) has got registered a fake Firm under the name of 'Balaji Info Services', however in reality, no such Firm actually exists and the money obtained through this Firm is being used for further transactions in other Firms. It was stated that Ankush Bassi (petitioner herein) and Ketan Sood were coming in their Thar along with their laptop through which they call the foreigners and cheat them, and in case barricading is done, they can be caught red handed. Finding the aforesaid information to be reliable, ruqa was sent through Contable Hardeep Singh and the FIR in question was got registered.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is innocent and he has been falsely implicated in FIR No.302 dated 17.12.2022. It is submitted that the petitioner belongs to a respectable family and his mother is a retired Government teacher. It is submitted that the petitioner started his career in year 2009 by joining company namely OPK E-Services Pvt. Ltd. Ludhian as a Customer Care Executive on a fixed salary of Rs. 9,500/- per month and thereafter petitioner was promoted as Senior Customer Support Executive. It is further submitted that the petitioner joined another company namely Jindal Infomedia Pvt. Ltd. Ludhiana on 29.11.2010 and worked in the said company till 22.6.2011. Thereafter, the petitioner went to Singpore for pursuing Advance Diploma in Hospitality Management, for which student pass and visa was issued to the petitioner from 18.08.2011 to 25.04.2012 (Annexure P-10 to Annexure P-13). After completing the aforesaid advance diploma, the petitioner again joined OPK E-Services Pvt. Ltd. Ludhiana and worked there from 04.06.2012 to 15.04.2015 where his work was to provide Online Tech Support, T