Accused denied bail in online fraud case

A local court has dismissed the bail application of a man arrested in a case of online fraud.

The FIR in the case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Arvind Kumar. He had stated that he had received a link via SMS for a loan. As he clicked on it, a Hugo loan application got installed. After that, he checked his eligibility for loan and filled in his details. He did not apply for any loan and uninstalled the application. Thereafter, he started receiving threatening calls and messages on WhatsApp asking him to send money, failing which they would circulate morphed and nude pictures of him and his family to his contacts.

He stated that though he sent Rs 2,045 and Rs 3,500 as demanded, he continued to receive threatening calls with demand for more money.

During investigation, the police arrested several persons, including a Chinese resident.

The counsel for Manoj Rathore, the accused, argued that the FIR was registered against unidentified person. No specific role in the crime was attributed to the accused.

On the other hand, Hukum Singh, the public prosecutor, stated that Manoj was allegedly associated with a company to which huge amount was transferred. He was arrested on December 29 last year. The investigation in the case was not completed yet.

After hearing the arguments, the court dismissed the bail application of the accused while observing that he was allegedly involved in a serious offence of committing fraud and blackmailing innocent persons.