Mumbai Court Grants Default Bail To Man Of Chinese Origin Accused Of Running Int'l Racket Of Fraudulent Loan Apps

The Metropolitan Magistrate, Kurla, Mumbai J. M. Ambodkar granted bail to Liyang Chi Sheng who has been booked under Sections 419, 420, 354 (A), 509, 384, 120 (B), r/w 56, 66 of the IT Act.

It has been alleged that the accused lured hundreds of people by offering them jobs in FinTech companies and other call centres, and made them work for the loan fraud racket and thus, cheating lakhs of Indians with thousands of crores in the past 4-5 years.

The Court noted that offence under section 420 IPC which attracts punishment of up to 7 years and as per Sec 167(2)(a)(ii), the police were required to file the charge sheet against the accused within the stipulated period of 60 days, which they failed to do and thus, right to default bail accrued to the accused.

For context, an accused is entitled to statutory bail (default bail) under Section 167(2)(a)(ii) of the Code of Criminal procedure if the police failed to file the charge sheet within 60 days of his arrest for the offence punishable with 'imprisonment up to 10 years.

In the instant case, the accused was first produced before the Court on July 27, 2022, and it was obligatory on the part of the Investigation Officer to file the charge sheet within the stipulated period of 60 days.

The 60 days period in the present case expired on September 24, 2022, and the accused filed the instant bail plea on the 62^nd day.

Against this backdrop, the Court noted that in the case against the accused, the maximum punishment for sections attracted is up to seven years and therefore the case would fall within the ambit of section 167(2) (ii) of Cr.P.C. In view of this, noting that no charge sheet had been filed against the accused, the Court granted default bail to the accused.

Advocate Prem Pandey appeared for the petitioner Liyang Chi Sheng.

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