Court rejects bail in fake Amarnath Yatra tickets scam

23/06/2017

Jammu, Jun 22: Duty Magistrate Jammu (Munsiff) Arti Devi rejected the bail application of one Sanjay Kumar Journalist Cum- Travel Agent who was arrested by Crime Branch Jammu in fake Amarnathji Yatra Tickets Scams.
While rejecting the bail applications, Court observed that the prima facie accusation of offences alleged against accused is found to be established in investigation done by Crime Branch, Jammu which swung into motion on the complaint of Global Vector Helicopter Ltd. who is having contract with Sh. Amarnath Shrine Board for providing helicopter services to Neelgrath Panchdhami route and was inquired by one Sudershan Sharma regarding the genuineness of his tickets booked by accused who is infact not the authorized agent of the company but prepared forged ticket on behalf of company. The main argument putforth by counsel for accused is that investigation is done by Crime Branch who is having no authority to investigate such matters of forgery. Moreover, for the offence of forgery there must be some valuable security which according to section includes only those documents which create some right like will, power of attorney etc. Court found no force in this argument because the word "tickets" comes within the definition of valuable security because genuine tickets give right to its holder to travel in the conveyance. Moreover, it is prima facie gathered from record that alleged offences are found to be committed in more than one district which get substantiate from this fact that two persons who hail from Nagpur appear before court in person after seeing news item in national channel of fake ticket booking and disclosed how they also fell into trap of accused on whose demand they transferred Rs. "1 lac to his account for tickets, however, their after statements are yet to be recorded by I/O because they reached Jammu only last night preceding their appearance before court.
Court further observed that in present case which is a peculiar case of cyber and online crime for which it can't be expected from investigation agency to come with all facts and figures in such a short period as same can be gathered only after seizure/ statement of bank accounts, email accounts of accused and victims etc. for which not only aid of forensic expert is required but custodial interrogation of accused is also required. Even though the complaint was initially lodged by Global Company praying for unearthing the racket of fake ticket booking but subsequently disclosed that accused seemed to victimize lots of people outside State especially people coming for visiting holy cave of Amarnath in which religious sentiments of public at large is also involved. So keeping in view the facts that the investigation is at preliminary stage, religious/public interest of society at large, Court think if the accused is admitted to bail then there is every likelihood that relevant documents required for the purpose of investigation and for unearthing the entire fraud alleged to have been committed by the accused may never see the light of the day as there is every likelihood that accused will tamper the witnesses and destroy the evidence. With these observations Court rejected the bail application. -JNF

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