Cybercrime mars India’s image: HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has rejected the pre-arrest bail applications of two techies, who have been named in a BPO scam in Pune. It also remarked about the damage cybercrime caused to India’s image.
The racket busted by the Pune police in February related to the BPO staffers calling up US citizens claiming to be from a American multinational technology company about a virus in their computers.The employees then hacked into the personal computers using software and misused data to cheat US citizens of thousands of dollars.
Two of the accused, Roopesh Bajaj and Deepak Waleja, sought protection from arrest on the grounds that offences under the Information Technology Act were bailable. The court rejected their pleas. “Such cases are rampant where the accused cheat vulnerable persons. They hack by using voice over internet protocol services. It not only (affects) the country’s image but it is an economic offence and cannot be simply brushed aside by holding that the offences under the IT Act are bailable offences,” said Justice Sadhna Jadhav, by pointing out that the duo had also been booked for cheating under the Indian Penal Code.
The court said that there was need for further regulations to monitor the operations of BPOs. “That the mode of operation in the information technology system have many ramifications unforeseen by the lawmakers and the accused persons like the applicants take advantage of the same and cheat vulnerable innocent people,” the court said.
The police had raided the BPO, RR Communications, run by Aditya Rathi at Hinjewadi on February 6. Rathi along with Bajaj, Walecha and two others were named as accused. Bajaj, a postgraduate from an Australian university runs a company ‘Cross Deers’, which was accused of providing voice over internet protocol (VOIP) facilities and customer information to the BPO.