S.K. Sahoo,J. - (1.) The petitioner Akash Kumar Pathak has knocked at the portals of this Court by filing an application under section 439 of Cr.P.C. seeking for bail in connection with CID, CB, Cyber Crime P.S. Case No.26 of 2020 corresponding to C.T. Case No.4053 of 2020 pending on the file of S.D.J.M., Bhubaneswar in which first charge sheet has been submitted for offences punishable under sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 read with section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and 66-C, 66-D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (hereafter 'I.T. Act') keeping the investigation open under section 173(8) of Cr.P.C.
(2.) On 18.05.2020 an email was received from one Trilochan Mohanty, Deputy General Manger-Ethics at Tata Motors Limited (hereafter 'the Company'), Jamshedpur Works, Jamshedpur as authorised representative addressed to the IG, CID, CB, Cuttack, Odisha alleging therein that it was brought to the notice of the Company on several occasions that certain unscrupulous elements were committing fraud and thereby causing harm to the reputation of the Company by contacting common public with criminal intent to defraud them and collect illicit money from them on the pretext of offering them jobs in the Company. The modus operandi of such people was to use the logo of the Company and/or TATA Group and other easily identifiable insignia. They were mentioning a name and number of a person to whom they misrepresent as an official of the Company. It is further mentioned in the email that an alarming case was brought to the notice of the Company through one email dated 7th May 2020 16:32 highlighting the illegal and unauthorized use of brand name and well known trademark of the Company and/or TATA and impersonation as an official of the Company relating to fraudulent job offer by Mr. Vijoy Jha from his email id vkjhamd@gmail.com enquiring about the confirmation of the post of the petitioner who is the son of an Indian Forest Officer of Odisha Cadre Mr. A.K. Pathak and that the petitioner was taking huge amount of money fraudulently from unemployed youth to secure them a job in the Company. The email also stated that the petitioner was illegally impersonating and projecting himself as MD, Tata Motors, Pune Passenger Division and CEO designate. A copy of the aforesaid email dated 7th May 2020 was attached to the email dated 18.05.2020. It is stated that the petitioner was using (i) A fake ID card mentioning Employee ID 88176 (ii) A fake visiting card with the official details as Akash Kumar Pathak, TAS, VP-Administration, 1st Floor, JRD Administrative Block, Tata Motors Limited, Telco Road, Pimpri, Pune-411018, Email IDakash.pathak@tatamotors.com and Contact nos. 9556968888/7077608883. Copies of the said fake ID card and visiting card used by the petitioner were attached to the email for taking drastic legal actions against the culprits. The fake ID card and visiting card indicated having 'TATA' stylized word mark as it appears on various passenger and commercial vehicles manufactured by TML. Those cards were having the 'T in circle' blue design mark which is a mark appearing on various passenger and commercial vehicles manufactured by TML by which the public identifies the conglomerate and the various products offered. The email id of such person mentioned in the email has the word 'Tata' in it. The person sending email found certain other evidence in support of the complaints pertaining to the petitioner that he had donated rupees five lakhs by fraudulently portraying himself as a M.D. (I/C) of the Passenger Division at Pune to the CM of Odisha at his official residence in Bhubaneswar, Odisha which can be found in the newspaper articles at http://tathya.in/news/39145/0/Pathak-Contributes-To-CMRF and http://odishabarta.com/2020/04/19/3263/. The Company also found the LinkedIn and Facebook Profile of the petitioner posing as TAS officer of Tata Motors Limited joined in 2017. A screenshot of the same was also attached to the email. It is further mentioned in the email that the general public believed that the petitioner was representing the Company. Neither the petitioner mentioned in the email, newspaper articles, LinkedIn or Facebook that he was employed by the Company nor the Company sought for money from any prospective candidates for recruitment. It is mentioned that there was no person in the name of the petitioner working for the Company as M.D. for Tata Motors, Pune Passenger Division or CEO designate. It is further mentioned in the email that there are clear evidence that the petitioner intentionally duped the common public fraudulently of their money and maligning the reputation of the Company and its officials. It was apprehended that this nature of fraud would lead to larger cunning acts with public at large i.e. business establishments, officials of the government, media houses, investors, TML local and regional establishments etc. and some of the instances were apparent in the complaint itself. It is stated that the offences committed by the petitioner amounts to criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud, forgery, impersonation, infringement of trademarks and copyrights and to engage a person with an intent to inflict monetary losses and theft of identity. In the said email, request was made to investigate and take necessary steps to trace out the persons using the phone numbers 9556968888 and 7077608883 as mentioned by the petitioner, to trace out the culprits involved in the matter and to ensure that such activities are discontinued forthwith and appropriate steps are taken to prosecute the people behind the act of fraud, forgery and impersonation. In the email, it is alleged that the petitioner along with other culprits cheated the company dishonestly and fraudulently by committing fraud, forgery by manufacturing Id mail and other documents to misappropriate money from public by impersonating fraudulently for which accused persons are liable to be punished for such criminal act of cheating, impersonation, committing fraud and forgery, misappropriation of money from public and other penal provision available for commission of cyber crime and penalty stipulated under cyber crime.
(3.) On 23.09.2020 the complainant Trilochan Mohanty appeared at Cyber Crime Police Station, Cuttack and reported to have lodged a report on 18.05.2020 before the I.G. of Police, CID, CB, Odisha, Cuttack through email. The records were verified and it was ascertained that the copy of the report was sent to DCP, Bhubaneswar for appropriate action but no action was taken thereon as on 23.09.2020. Accordingly, on 23.09.2020 CID, CB, Cyber Crime P.S. Case No.26 of 2020 was registered under sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 469, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and 66-C, 66-D of the I.T. Act against the petitioner only. During course of investigation of the case, the complainant Sri Trilochan Mohanty was examined and his statement was recorded who corroborated the F.I.R. story and produced some relevant documents like (i) two pages of email communication received by complainant Trilochan Mohanty in his mail id-trilochan.mohanty@tatamotors.com on 08.05.2020 from his Chief Ethic Councillor Sunil Pundlik from mail idsunil.pundlik@tatamotors.com regarding the mail of vkjhamd@gmail.com about the fraudulent activities of the accused, (ii) two pages of mail communication sent from complainant Trilochan Mohanty on dtd.08.05.2020 from his mail id-trilochan.mohanty@tatamotors.com to the mail idvkjhamd@gmail.com regarding furnishing of information about the fraud, (iii) nine pages of mail communication sent from the mail id- vkjhamd@gmail.com to complainant Trilochan Mohanty on dtd.08.05.2020/09.05.2020 to his mail id-trilochan.mohanty @tatamotors.com regarding submission of more information about the petitioner, (iv) one LinkedIn account page of the petitioner having URL:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/akashkumar-pathak-a45b09157 having information written about Tata Administrative Service, (v) one Facebook account page of the petitioner having URL:- https://www.facebook.com/ akashkumar.pathak.5 having information written about Tata Administrative Service, (vi) one HP Laptap in which the complainant communicated with the source through gmail having specification Make:-HP, Sl. No.:- SCD9112R48, TATA MOTORS No.-96535 were seized under seizure list. Basing on the seized documents correspondence made with Mobile Service Providers, it was ascertained that both the mobile numbers 9556968888 and 9556968888 belonged to one Sakir Khan of Unit-9, Bhubaneswar but the user could not be traced out. During course of investigation, correspondences were made with Face book Law Enforcement Agency for providing User registration details of the Facebook Id:-Akash Kumar Pathak along with IP addresses details which were awaited. During course of investigation, the Investigating Officer visited the Business Plaza situated at Pune where the petitioner was running his office at 10th Floor and hired half of the floor and opened his Tata Motors Office. The Investigating Officer also visited Gods Blessing Apartment at Pune, Waters Apartment at Pune and examined different witnesses and recorded their statements. The witnesses proved the fraudulent, dishonest, illegal and clandestine activities of the petitioner by projecting himself as the MD of Tata Motors Ltd., Pimpri Division and convincing the people that his office in Hotel West Inn was his additional office to discharge his escalating work pressure. One witness David Peter proved the meeting of the petitioner with other co-accused persons namely Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi and Sarveswar Rao and regarding their conspiracy to cheat public by using fake identity card, visiting card, mail id, Tata Motors logo etc. as genuine. The witness further stated that the petitioner and the co-accused Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi were visiting different places in Charter Flight and staying together in hotels at different places. During course of investigation, the Investigating Officer seized some vital documents at Pune which proved that the petitioner was running a fake office in the name of Tata Motors by using Tata Motors Logo etc. at Business Plaza. Requisition was given to Sarfaraj Maner, General Manager HR (CVBU), Pimpri, Pune to furnish detail information relating to the petitioner who was projecting himself as MD (I/c), Passenger Division, Tata Motors Ltd., Pimpri, Pune who in his reply affirmed that the petitioner was not working in the said Office at Pimpri, Pune. On examination of some witnesses of Berhampur and peripheral area, it was proved that number of job aspirants have been cheated by co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi, who was an associate of the petitioner and he was also personally collecting money from the job aspirants and their parents/guardians by projecting himself as he would be father-in-law of the petitioner by projecting the petitioner as the MD (I/c), Passenger Division, Tata Motors Ltd., Pimpri, Pune. It was found during investigation that the innocent local people believed the version of co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi in good faith and many of them paid huge amount of money in cash as well as by account payment to the co-accused for securing a job in TATA Motors. Co-accused V. Sarveswar Rao collected resume of different job aspirants and sent the same to the petitioner and assured people for job in the Tata Motors. The job aspirants received application forms on their mails from careers@tata- motors.org and appeared online interview. They also provided list of selected candidates and attended online training course. Further the email communications between the mail id of job aspirants with mail id careers@tata-motors.org for getting job in TATA Motors Ltd. along with 65-B Certificates from some witnesses were seized which proved the correspondence between the job aspirants and the petitioner. Statement of accounts of victims indicates that huge amount of money transactions was made from their account to account of co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi and similarly transactions of huge amount of money were made from Pradeep Panigrahi's account to the account of the petitioner. The statement of account also corroborate the statements of victims/ witnesses regarding withdrawal of huge amount of money to attend the illegal demand of accused for providing job in Tata Motors. The Investigating Officer made correspondence with eNom, Inc, Registrar IANA, Google LLC with a request to furnish the point wise information related to domain tata-motors.org i.e. User Registration details, IP addresses, payment details etc., but the report was still awaited. Some Laptops, Mobile handset, SIM cards etc. which were related to the petitioner were re-seized by Inspector R.P. Satpathy and David Peter Metre which were originally seized from them by vigilance. The petitioner was brought in police remand who while in police custody confessed to have created email id akash.pathak@tata-motors.org and received resumes of job aspirants from the email id of the co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi and the petitioner in presence of Government witnesses opened the email id akash.pathak@tata-motors.org created in the name of TATA Motors for impersonating himself and screenshots of each step was taken and memorandum was prepared in presence of witnesses. The screenshots and other related documents, email communication between the petitioner and co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi were also seized. The Investigating Officer made correspondence with Google INC through mail for providing User registration details, IP address details along with MAC address of the alleged computer used at the time of registration, login details concerned IP address with login date and time in respect of the e-mail ID:- mlagopalpur2019@gmail.com for the period from creation/registration of e-mail account and the reply was received. The Investigating Officer made correspondence with Ms. Nupur Mallick, Group CHRO, TATA Sons seeking for clarifications about the petitioner, who confirmed that the petitioner was never empanelled in TATA Administrative Service. The seized exhibits were forwarded to the Director, State Forensic Science Laboratory, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar for forensic examination and opinion through learned S.D.J.M., Bhubaneswar and the report is still awaited. The Investigating Officer found that the petitioner had committed the offence of forgery by creating forged documents like I-Card, Visiting Card in the name of Tata Motors. He has committed the offence of identity theft in the name of Tata Motors and gave an impression of being a senior functionary of Tata Motors so as to get pecuniary advantages using forged document as genuine. The petitioner along with co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi and Sarveswar Rao committed the offence of cheating by impersonation by creating forged electronic records in the form of Gmail in the name of TATA Motors. The offence was committed by the petitioner and coaccused Pradeep Panigrahi and Sarveswar Rao in a pre-planned and calculated manner for their wrongful gain by inflicting wrongful loss to the common people in the name of providing jobs to the job seekers in Tata Motors Ltd. which is a whitecollar crime affecting socio-economic fabric of the State. The petitioner along with co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi and Sarveswar Rao hatched out criminal conspiracy in a pre-planned and calculated manner to dupe and induce the gullible job aspirants and their guardians in the guise of providing jobs in Tata Motors and collected huge amount of money. The petitioner along with co-accused Pradeep Panigrahi and Sarveswar Rao fraudulently fabricated documents including electronic documents to project the petitioner as the MD (I/c) of Tata Motors, Passenger Division and received resumes of the job aspirants, sent them letters purportedly issued by Tata Motors Ltd., conducted fake online interviews and collected money from them after issuing forged selection letters. The petitioner also organized fake online training for the selected candidates. From the evidence collected, it was found that the petitioner along with co-accused Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi and V. Sarveswar Rao have committed the offences under sections 419/420/467/468/471/120-B of the Indian Penal Code read with sections 66-C/66-D of I.T. Act and accordingly, first charge sheet was submitted against them keeping the investigation open under section 173(8) of Cr.P.C. ;