Bail application of African national dismissed by Chandigarh court

Chandigarh, May 6

A local court has dismissed the bail application of Gideon Sebastian, an African national, who was arrested, along with two of his accomplices, by the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of the UT police for allegedly duping a Mani Majra resident of Rs 8.72 lakh.

The police had registered a case against the suspects on February 14, 2022, on a complaint of Yashveer Singh, a Mani Majra resident, who alleged that he received a friend request on Facebook from a woman, Tina Francis, who claimed to be a resident of the United Kingdom.

Yashveer said he accepted the friend request and the duo started chatting on the social networking site. He said the woman told him that she was sending him a gift. A few days later, he got a call from a person, who identified himself as a custom officer. The officer told him to send money for clearing the gift. The complainant said he fell into their trap and paid a sum of Rs 8.72 lakh to them.

The counsel for the accused argued that the applicant had been falsely implicated in this case and he had no concern with the alleged offences. There was nothing on record to relate the registered mobile owners and the applicant/accused.

The Additional Public Prosecutor opposed the bail and said the accused was a citizen of the Republic of Ghana and staying in India with an expired visa. He had cheated the complainant intentionally. If concession of bail was granted to the applicant/accused, he would jump the bail and not attend the court.

After hearing the arguments, the court rejected the bail of the accused. The court said the accused was arrested from Delhi and nine mobile phones, 11 SIM cards, 16 ATM cards, two laptops, three passbooks and two cheque books were recovered from his possession. It could not be said at this stage that the accused was not involved in the entire transaction. Allegations levelled against the accused were serious in nature. So, keeping in view the nature and gravity of the offence as allegedly committed by the accused, the Court did not find it appropriate to grant concession of bail to the accused.