A cyber crime cell official of Jaipur police, who was arrested for alleged involvement in illegally procuring and selling mobile phone call details records (CDR) of businessmen and corporates, has been granted bail by a Delhi court.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rajani Ranga enlarged Mukesh Kumar Meena (38), a sub-inspector in the cyber cell of Jaipur Police, on bail, saying no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him jail but warned that he should not commit similar offence again.
"A perusal of the record reveals that all the five co-accused have been released on bail and charge sheet has been filed. In these circumstances, I am of the view that no fruitful purpose would be served by curtailing the liberty of the accused person by keeping him behind bar," the magistrate said while granting him bail on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 20,000 and surety of like amount.
The court directed Meena to appear before it on every date of hearing, not to commit similar offence again and not to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence.
Meena and five others were arrested in July following raids in cities, including Mumbai, Pune and Jaipur, on the basis of a complaint by a Delhi resident whom the accused had allegedly approached and provided him with his son's CDR in exchange of Rs 8,000.
Advocate Pradeep Rana, appearing for Meena, sought bail claiming he was falsely implicated by officials of the crime branch and the complainant, and that the cop had a bright future.
The counsel said Meena was in custody since July 17 and his bail was dismissed thrice and was no more required for investigation purposes.
The bail plea was opposed by Delhi Police on the ground that the allegations against him were serious and the probe in the case was still going on.
"From the investigation conducted so far, it has come out that a big racket is involved in procuring CDR illegally all over India which have link with the accused persons... Meena in his official capacity was entrusted with the passwords of government emails for procuring CDRs but he indulged in selling CDRs for his personal monetary benefit in connivance with other accused...
"He misappropriated the valuable documents i.E. CDRs and cheated his senior officers as well as mobile service providers," the police said.
Besides Meena, the other accused in the case included
Aniket Prakash Dhamle (25), who claims to be an ethical hacker by profession and runs a detective agency in Pune, Abhinav Kumar (35), who heads a detective agency in Mumbai, Gajraj Singh (23), a cyber expert who was helping Jaipur Police for the past two years.
Police has booked all the accused under various sections including cheating by impersonation, cheating, criminal breach of trust by public servant, criminal conspiracy under the IPC and under the Indian Telegraph Act.
Police said Meena allegedly sent over 2,000 CDRs to Gajraj Singh through official links under the National Informatics Centre (NIC) domain for around Rs 1,500 each, which Singh used to resend to the detective agencies for anything around Rs 3,500. The detective agencies used to sell the same to their clients charging between Rs 5,000-12,000, police said.
The agencies associated with the racket allegedly catered to clients who sought CDRs for clues in matrimonial disputes, financial enquires of their rivals, love affairs, civil disputes, legal disputes and match-making, it said.
