This petition is filed under Section 438 of Cr.P.C., praying

to enlarge the petitioner/accused No.3 on bail in the event of his

arrest in respect of Crime No.365/2021 registered by North Cen

Crime Police Station, Bengaluru City, for the offences punishable

under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act,

2000 and Sections 120B and 420 read with Section 34 of IPC.

2.

Heard the learned counsel appearing for the

petitioner and the learned High Court Government Pleader

appearing for the respondent/State.

3.

The factual matrix of the case of the prosecution is

that, the complainant has alleged in the complaint that initially

the informant filed the first information against the accused

alleging that certain sum of money and several documents were

collected by inducing her and promising to give higher returns

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and during investigation, it was found that accused are involved

in several such cases of collecting several documents from

innocent persons, floated several companies and collected crores

of rupees from general public, promising to appoint them for

work from home job and also collected huge amount promising

to repay the same with huge returns. Based on the complaint, a

case has been registered and this petitioner is arraigned as

accused No.3.

4.

The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner

would vehemently contend that this petitioner has not indulged

in any activities of the Company which have been registered and

while taking the signature, an allegation is that induced the

complainant by this petitioner and this petitioner is not involved

in any such fraud as alleged in the complaint. The learned

counsel also would submit that this Court already granted bail in

respect of accused Nos.2 and 4 in Crl.P.No.8957/2021 c/w.

Crl.P.No.9216/2021. Hence, on the ground of parity, this

petitioner may be enlarged on bail.

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5.

Per contra, the learned High Court Government

Pleader appearing for the State would submit that this petitioner

is not available for investigation. While filing the charge-sheet,

he has not arraigned as an accused and reserved right to file

additional charge-sheet under Section 173(8) of Cr.P.C. The

learned High Court Government Pleader would submit that the

allegation made against the accused persons is committing fraud

more than Rs.3 Crores and already the bank account was

freezed in respect of the companies.

6.

Having heard the learned counsel appearing for the

petitioner and the learned High Court Government Pleader

appearing for the State and on perusal of the material available

on record, accused Nos.2 and 3, who were earlier in judicial

custody had been enlarged on bail in Crl.P.No.8957/2021 c/w.

Crl.P.No.9216/2021 on the ground that already the account has

been freezed and an investigation has already been completed.

The very contention of the petitioner9s counsel that he has not

indulged in any such activities except an allegation is that this

petitioner is also a part of setting up of the Company. Having

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taken note of the said fact into consideration and charge-sheet is

already filed and bank account of the company is also freezed, it

is a fit case to exercise the discretion under Section 438 of

Cr.P.C., in favour of the petitioner with a direction to the

petitioner to appear before the Investigating Officer and assist

him for investigation.

7.

In view of the discussions made above, I pass the

following:

ORDER

The

petition

is

allowed.

Consequently,

the

petitioner/accused No.3 shall be released on bail in the event of

his arrest in Crime No.365/2021 registered by North Cen Crime

Police Station, Bengaluru City, for the offences punishable under

Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000

and Sections 120B and 420 read with Section 34 of IPC, subject

to the following conditions:-

(i)

The petitioner shall surrender himself before

the Investigating Officer within ten days from

the date of receipt of a certified copy of this

order and shall execute a personal bond