ORDER

Date : 28-11-2023

1. Heard Mr. A.K. Bhuyan, learned counsel for the petitioners.

2. The petitioners, namely, [1] Rajan Sidana @ Ranjan Sidana @ Ranjan [2] Divyam Arora [3] Mahendra Chand [4] Tushar Kumar [5] Shekhar Chand Sarma @ Sekhar [6] Jagdeep Singh [7] Siddhu Yadav [8] Gautam Chetry @ Mama [9] Akash Sharma [10] Durgesh Yadav [11] Ashish Agarwala [12] Puneet Sharma [13] Manoj Kumar [14] Rohil Kumar [15] Sri Jitendra Joshi and [16] Rahul Paswan have filed this application under Section 439 Cr.PC with prayer for bail in connection with Dispur P.S. FIR No. 2126/2023 under Sections 120B/419/420/385/467/471/468/507 IPC read with Sections 65/66/66B/66C/66D of IT Act, 2000.

3. It is submitted that the petitioners have been languishing in the jail since 09.11.2023 on the basis of the subsequent FIR which was registered on 07.11.2023 and the earlier similar FIR was registered on 14.09.2023 by Jyotirmoy Dutta of Crime Branch, Guwahati, Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime). The relevant portion of the FIR lodged on 14.09.2023 is quoted herein below:-

“ I have the honour to inform you that with reference to the above GDE, a reliable source information was received that some Scammer gangs are operational in Guwahati, Assam was are involved in operating call centers across India and are scamming and cheating gullible Indian and Foreign Nationals by impersonating as Tech Support Staff by originating “tech support pop- ups and by impersonating as legitimate customer service representatives to deceive individuals and cheat them out of money or personal information making various false claims to create a sense of urgency or fear by claiming that the bank account has been compromised, computer has a virus, personal identifiable information are at risk, computer or social media account has been hacked. Further, this gang of Scammers initiate contact through unsolicited phone calls, claiming to be from a well known company or organization, such as a bank, tech support, government agency, or even a popular online service for their financial gain. They ask the victims to install remote desktop software and thereby take access to their computers and thereafter steal personal information and plant malware on the targets victims devices. More importantly, the gang of scammers has associates and members across India and the scammers launders the money obtained through these scams. Accordingly, upon-receipt of the source information, I along with combined staff have made an enquiry about the matter in the Guwahati City. During enquiry, it revealed that the following persons along with other accomplices have illegally setup Customer Care Centrers/Call Centers as per information received at Bamunimaidam (back side of Sicedm) Mono Motors building at Bamunimaidam, at VIP Road opposite Trust Motors, Outspire Solutions at Zoo Road, above AG Medicare at Rajgarh Road, near Hotel D Agni Dip at ABC and few other places of Guwahati which are used to scam and cheat Indian and Foregin Nationals by impersonating as Tech Support Staff. During enquiry, intel received has been found to be true to its nature. The below mentioned accused along with others are found to be the masterminds involved in the offense. Furthermore, the accused persons and their associates manipulates and forge electronic documents and use them as genuine documents for the purpose of cheating and found to be actively operating this scam since quite long”.

4. This FIR was registered as Cyber P.S. Case No. 08/2023 u/s 120(B)/419/420/385/467/471/468/507 of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 65/66/66B/66C/66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. After investigation the police arrested the present petitioners on 16.09.2023 and 17.09.2023 and the petitioner Nos. 1, 2, 3 were granted bail by this Court on 08.11.2023 and thereafter the instant case was registered on 07.11.2023 by the complainant, Inspector of Police (UB), Crime Branch, Guwahati and this FIR was registered as D