Lucknow, Sep 15 The Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench on Tuesday upheld the arrest of 119 people who were allegedly caught operating a fake cyber call centre to dupe US citizens, observing that the reasons for their arrest had been communicated through the recovery memo.
A bench of Justice Rajnish Kumar and Justice Babita Rani dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by 14 of the accused, who had challenging their arrest and subsequent remand on the the grounds that the reasons for their arrest had not been communicated to them.
The case relates to a police raid conducted around 10.30 pm on June 30 following information that a fake cyber call centre was being operated from Summit Building in Vibhuti Khand.
Police found 119 people, including 92 men and 27 women, at the premises on the 11th floor. They allegedly recovered 103 laptops, 116 headphones, 111 laptop chargers, 68 iPhones, 109 mobile phones, a biometric machine and a router, among other items.
According to the prosecution, the call centre was allegedly being used to dupe US citizens by posing as officials of various US government agencies and companies.
The accused were arrested on July 1 and produced before a magistrate on July 2, after which they were remanded in judicial custody.
Filing the plea, the petitioners alleged that they had been kept in illegal custody for more than 24 hours and that the grounds and reasons for their arrest had not been communicated to them. They also alleged that their relatives were not informed promptly.
Considering the matter, the bench rejected the allegation of illegal detention beyond 24 hours, noting that a large number of people were involved and a substantial quantity of electronic devices had been recovered.
On informing relatives, the court found that police had contacted the persons nominated by the accused over phone.
However, failure to make a corresponding entry in the relevant records was held to be a procedural lapse.
The bench observed that such a lapse, by itself, would not render the entire arrest illegal.
Since the grounds and reasons for arrest had been communicated through the recovery memo, the court held that the arrests and subsequent remand could not be invalidated on the basis of the procedural irregularity.
The court, however, clarified that its order would not affect the merits of the criminal case, the bail proceedings or the trial.
