BENGALURU: A city civil and sessions court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to two persons accused of cheating former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda of nearly Rs 3 lakh in September.
Sriu Tenzin Pelyon, 32, of Himachal Pradesh and Yeshi Chodon, 31, from Odisha, directors of Lhakar Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Domlur, Bengaluru North, had applied for anticipatory bail.
Considering the objections filed by the prosecution, Judge Gangappa Irappa Patil, 52nd Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, said that in the FIR, the names of the accused have not been mentioned. “It is true that the FIR has been registered against unknown persons. Money has been transferred to the bank account of the company of the accused... At this stage, it is not a fit case to grant bail to the petitioners,” he said.
In his complaint filed at the North CEN crime police station, Gowda said that he had purchased a new Innova car and on September 11, he received a message purportedly from India Post stating that the Registration Certificate (RC) of his vehicle has been sent. But it did not reach him.
Later, when he tried to track the speed post sent to him on the Indian Speed Post Tracking system, he received a link that sought certain details. He submitted all details, including the tracking ID. Subsequently, he received a WhatsApp call from cellphone No. 84******03, claiming to be from India Post courier customer care centre. The caller requested him to make a nominal payment of Rs 2 for verification of the tracking ID.
Gowda tried to make the payment through PhonePe, but failed. Then, the unknown caller informed Gowda that the RC card will be sent to his residential address.
Gowda stated that when he checked his savings accounts with SBI, Axis Bank and HDFC banks around 9am on September 17, he found that Rs 2,85,999 had been withdrawn without his knowledge.
Meanwhile, the investigation took the CEN police to the accused’s company. Fearing their arrest, the accused approached the court for anticipatory bail. Claiming that they have no role in the crime, the accused said the bank account of their company has been wrongly and inadvertently linked to the offence, despite having no transaction or monetary link with the accounts of Gowda. Neither their company nor its directors used the cell phone No. 84******03, they claimed.
The public prosecutor filed objections stating that the investigation is pending and the police are yet to file the chargesheet. If the petitioners are granted anticipatory bail, their presence cannot be secured easily. Further, the petitioners are from other states, though they work in Bengaluru. If they are granted anticipatory bail, they may tamper with witnesses and hamper the investigation.