Sanjith Jamatia vs State Of Kerala

Ziyad Rahman A.A, J

This is an application filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking regular bail.

The petitioner is the 7th accused in Crime No.5/2022 of Cyber Crime Police Station, Thiruvananthapuram. The offences alleged against the petitioner and the other accused are punishable under Sections 419, 420 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code and Section 66 D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The prosecution case is that, the accused persons in furtherance of their common intention, committed impersonation and cheated the defacto complainant by inducing her to pay money in the accounts of the accused persons. According to her, the aforesaid cheating was committed by the accused person by obtaining the details of the defacto complainant from the matrimonial site named ‘Kerala Matrimony” during the month of January, 2021. Thereafter the 1st accused contacted the defacto complainant impersonating himself as a Doctor employed in Jordan, and promised to marry her. By creating such an impression, an amount of Rs.22,75,000/- was collected from the defacto complainant and deposited in the accounts of the accused Nos. 3 to 6. A portion of the amount was transferred to the account of the petitioner/7th accused, and according to the prosecution, the petitioner was one of the persons who planned the entire actions. The petitioner, who is a native of Tripura, was arrested on 18.03.2023 and brought to Kerala and on 23.03.2023 he was remanded to judicial custody. Since then, he has been under judicial detention. This application for regular bail is submitted in such circumstances.

Heard, Sri. V.R Rekesh, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Sri.C.N Prabhakaran, the learned Public Prosecutor, appearing for the State.

Various contentions have been raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner in support of the prayer for bail, and one among the said contentions was that even though the petitioner was arrested on 18.03.2023, so far no final report has been submitted by the police. Therefore, by virtue of the stipulation contained in Section 167(2) of Cr. P.C, he is entitled to statutory bail.

The learned Public Prosecutor, upon instructions, submitted that no final report has been submitted as of now.

In such circumstances, in view of the stipulation under Section 167(2) of Cr.P.C, the petitioner is entitled to bail, and it is ordered accordingly. Therefore, it is ordered that the petitioner shall be released on bail subject to following conditions:-

i) The petitioner shall be released on bail on executing a bond for Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh only) with two solvent sureties for the like sum each to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional Court. At least one among the sureties shall be a person from the State of Kerala.

ii) The petitioner shall fully cooperate with the investigation.

iii) The petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer between 10.00 a.m and 11.00 a.m every Wednesday until the filing of the final report.

iv) The petitioner shall also appear before the Investigating

v) The petitioner shall not commit any offence of similar nature while on bail.

vi) The petitioner shall not make any attempt to contact any of the prosecution witnesses, directly or through any other person, or in any other way try to tamper with the evidence or influence any witnesses or other persons related to the investigation.

vii) The petitioner shall not leave the State of Kerala without the permission of the trial Court.

In case of violation of any of the above conditions, the jurisdictional Court shall be empowered to consider the application for cancellation of bail, if any, and pass appropriate orders in accordance with the law.