My brother is an IT engg and he started his business of International call center on aug 2017 & was running it successfully. He had agreements with all his employers from Australia & UK. Police did a SUO-Moto & raided his center and arrested him and sealed his office even after showing all the docs he had on oct,on-charge that he had accepting payments VIA bitcoins from his employers which was also mentioned on the agreements of the projects as a mean of investment.Now a wrong FIR has been filed by the police and its been filed as he had been calling people in Australia & UK accepting payments illegally from them impersonating as a different company which was not the case as he had been accepting payments only from the companies he had agreements with; via bitcoins. He was charged as well saying bitcoins are illegal in India. Now he has been charged under Sec 120b/419/420/467/471 of IPC. He got an interim bail the next day itself as there has been no complain against him of fraud, it was a personal SUO-MOTO sourced information based on which the police conducted the raid. Now he needs to meet the IO twice every next week but they are keeping him for more 4 hours questioning him different things & forcing him to not consult with any advocate anymore. He is quite afraid now as what to do next as police also informed him they will apply for bail rejection saying he is non-co operative with them. Will he get arrested again on the next hearing if police is applying for his bail rejection? Chargesheet has already been filed and he is on interim bail right now. He is afraid that police can do anything if they feel like as they are harassing him by questioning him for more than 4-5 hours every week on the IO meet & indirectly threatening him that his bail application will be cancelled as all senior police officers will stand and say against him being non-co- operative.
16 answers received from multiple lawyers
Lawyers are available now to answer your questions.
1) you cannot be denied right to consult a lawyer
2)your bother would not be arrested if police apply for bail rejection
3) he should take the plea that he is cooperating with investigations going to IO twice a week
4) you can based on legal advice file for quashing of FIR and charge sheet in HC
Hello,
Please approach the HC and challenge the chargesheet u/s 482 to take specific direction.
Though you will have to cooperate in the investigation, still the matter prima facie seems to be vexatious therefore you are advised to approach the HC at this juncture.
Contact a local lawyer.
Challenge the same on the basis of suo moto cognizance and some procedural flaw (that will be (if any) determined after perusing the records)
Regards
1.Donot worry as he can apply for relxaiton of bail so the condition of meeting the IO cna be waived.
2.The rejection of bail application can be contested and hence it does mean that the moment the police fielspetition bail would be rejected.
3.If charge sheet is submitted the the condition would be waived.
4.if there is no merit in the case the it can be challenged in high court also in quashing.
5. it appears your brother is not advised properly.
So if you bring the FIR copy then I can advise further on next course of action to get rid of the case.All The best.
1. Since police is keeping him for over 4 hours for investigation whenever he appears he should file an application to the court to seek specific directions to police to not to harass him when he appears.
2. Police is free to file an application for bail cancellation, but to get it cancelled it has to prove that the conditions precedent to the grant of bail have been violated by him. The mere statement of police does not suffice to cancel the bail granted to an accused.
Sir,
The above charges are not cyber related offences until and unless there are different offences included on charge sheet under Information technology act / money laundering act. ie., Sec. 66,66D ... etc.,
Police has right to register FIR based on the suo-moto based information and conduct the raids on the property.
To be at safer side, apply for regular bail on or before next hearing date.
Discuss with me, if you need any more help.
Right to availing the services of an Advocate is his right and the Police cannot deny the same to your brother.
File a petition under section 482 challenging the chargesheet filed against your brother. Seek a stay on the chargesheet and the entire proceedings. This will have to be filed in the High Court. Take a chance by doing this.
Incase the above plan doesn't works, file a discharge application before the Trial Court.
Ask him to be polite and cooperate with the police becasue the police, if decide to go against him then he may be having a tough time explaining the court about the the police excesses.
In the meantime he may apply for relaxation of the condition of the interim bail mowing to the filing of charge sheet in the present case stating that the IO's investigation has since been completed once he has filed the charge sheet.
First of all thank you for all your suggestions. Based on your advice we hired a good lawyer. Now the scenario is since my brother was getting harassed for the IO meet on the purpose of investigation and he was regularly being told for not bringing his advocate with him. So he informed in front of the learned Magistrates' Court about the scenario after the second IO meet on 26th October 2017 after which the court ordered the IO to mail him on his mail ID 24hours prior to IO meet & also said that IO meet may go for 4-5 hours depending on the Investigating Officer's time and it was on 1st Nov 2017. But they didn't send him any email till the next hearing on 18th November 2017 but on the same date we applied for the relaxation of the condition & police applied for the cancellation of bail & said that my brother is non co-operative and he should be taken to police custody. But after our advocate showed that there is no Mail from their side as instructed by Court, the Judge humiliated the PP as well as a Senior Police Officer for not listening to the Court's Order but he kept the same condition of meeting the IO twice a week as the Police didn't completed their investigation due to this failure of IO meet. Now on the same day at 5.55 p.m. the cyber police sent an email saying IO meet on 20th Nov 2017 i.e. day after tomorrow. Now if my brother goes for the meet will he be tagged in unnecessarily in any other case or will they can beat him as the senior Police who actually threatened him before that they will say he being non-co-operative and apply for the cancellation of the bail is the same who got humiliated in Court for not following Court's Order. One more thing the case is being applied in High Court as well for being quashed of the FIR as well. Will this bail on condition gonna affect the High Court Case as well? What will be my Brother's next step though he is going for the IO meet on Monday i.e. 18.11.2017.
He may go and meet, do not worry about the same. The things are happening by the order of the court, he will not be harassed.
The bail will have no negative implications on the case that will be filed in the High Court.
Regards
Your brother should be accompanied by his lawyer if he apprehends torture by police or any danger of implicating him in some other case.
The lawyer may insist the police to investigate the accused in his presence, there are provisions in law for this.
The conditions imposed for grant of bail can be relaxed after this meeting with the IO
Your lawyer has to file another application stating that the IO is unnecessarily dragging the case in the name of investigation where as he is not progressing the investigation intentionally and also threatens to implicate your brother into many more false cases.
This apprehension should be highlighted in the argument by your advocate in the application seeking relaxation of conditions for grant of bail.
Your brother would not be assaulted if he attends police station
2) quashing is to be done only in exceptional circumstances
3) consult a local lawyer before filing for quashing
Since your current lawyer has access to all the documents pertaining your case immediately, Please discuss with him. And my views ( be given after seeing your query ie., without seeing official documents ) may be differ from his views and may lead adverse consequences to you.
It appeaers you did not notice my adivce postted earlier.
I suggested you to apply for relaxation of bail.Else harassment of IO will continue.
If you wish to have my assistance to waive the condition and to take next line of action feel free to contact.
First of all thank you for all your suggestions. So we went to the high court and received iterim stay order on the very first day of the case and even the Interim Bail was also confirmed and the stay order continued on the 2nd hearing as well since no one from the police sides appeared. Now on the 3rd hearing that is on 9th JAN we applied for the quashing of the FIR but High Court said that Quashing of the FIR is not possible as of now as the Public Prosecutor said they need more time for the investigation so the HIGH Court Ordered that Quashing of FIR is not possible as of now and said the police to continue the investigation and file the chargesheet and disposed the case to be looked after by the lower court. Again the Police emailed my brother asking him to meet on the next day itself for the investigation. Though my brother is sick and informed the same about it. Just wanted to know will they will apply for the confirmed bail cancellation again and if the police call for investigation on the confirmed bail do my brother have to go and can they harass him as well. What will happen next and what will be our next step? Police is unnecessarily dragging the case in the name of investigation and they may take a lot of time to file the charge sheet as well. My brother is getting mentally disturbed on this false case. Do we need to change the lawyer as well as this case is not getting out from harassment of my brother ..
Your brother will have to take part in the investigation.
Let them file a chargesheet, you can move to HC for quashing of the charge sheet.
Changing a lawyer depends on you, for the purpose of investigation there is no need of a lawyer.
Regards
1)your brother should cooperate with investigations
2) he must attend police station when called
3) wait for filing of charge sheet
4) then file for quashing in HC
5)no need to change your lawyer
1. No idea who suggested you to go for Quash without even knowing about the investigation. So, the visible fact is High court think that there is a crime happened and want police to investigate and file charge sheet.
2. Apply for regular bail.
3. Co-operate with police investigation else the current interim bail could be rejected by the court.
4. If your brother is sick and could not able to co-operate with police investigation then reply accordingly attaching medical records.
5. In case, if you are think your lawyer is not capable enough to deal the case then get NOC and look for another lawyer.
You cannot blame the police or the lawyer for this delay.
This is routine and such things are routine and common.
The police will not change their attitude or approach just because it is your brother involved in this.
If you do not cooperate with the police they file an application before high court seeking cancellation of bail on the grounds that the accused is no cooperating for investigation.
The high court may immediately cancel the bail on the basis of the arguments made by public prosecutor for non cooperation by the accused with the police.
Don't Create problems for yourself by such negligent attitude.
The police may take 90 to 180 days for completing the investigation and submit charge sheet before the trial court as a rule, hence you cannot seek expeditious investigation.