Bail denied to four in Mata Vaishno Devi helicopter ticket scam

Chief Judicial Magistrate Jammu Amarjeet Singh Langeh, on Monday, rejected bail applications of Sunil Chawla, Deepak, Gajanand Meghwal and Monu Pankaj, all residents of Rajasthan, who were involved in cheating Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims by offering fake Helicopter Tickets.

According to case, Cyber Crime Police Station Jammu received a complaint on February 11, 2022 from Co-Ordinator J&K Global Vectra Helicorp Limited divulging therein that the company came to know from social media news portal that some unknown fraudsters are cheating Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims by offering fake Helicopter Tickets by projecting themselves as representatives of company.

Complainant also provided detail of some links and asserted that unknown fraudsters have opened fake bank accounts, quite similar to Complainant Company, in different banks. It was also pointed out that entire ticket booking is handled by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and no private agency is allowed to book any ticket. Accordingly, FIR No 04/2022 for offences under sections 66-D of IT Act read with sections 420 and 120-B of IPC was registered and investigation started, during which four accused were allegedly arrested from Kota Pride situated at Kota (Rajasthan) on March 16, 2022 and some recoveries including Computers, Hard-disks, laptops and Modem etc. were also recovered. Even though initially only offences under sections 420 & 66-D of IT Act were registered against petitioners but during the course of investigation, offences under sections 465/467/468/469/471 & 120-B of IPC were also added in the case.

During the investigation carried out, it was surfaced that petitioners along with unknown fraudsters in league with each other impersonated as employees of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and Global Vectra Helicorp Limited and Himalayan Heli Services Pvt. Ltd., the two helicopter service providing entities and issued fake tickets for helicopter service from Katra to Sanjichat against receipt of money, thereby duping various pilgrims.

Furthermore, the respondent police station received five more complaints of similar nature wherein different complainants alleged that an amount of Rs.2,79,160 (rupees two lakh seventy nine thousand one hundred sixty) was looted by unknown fraudsters from them by providing fake helicopter tickets to them. During investigation, it also came to fore that petitioners and other fraudsters who are yet to be traced, have prepared around 40 fake websites in name of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board; that petitioners have allegedly used original GST numbers of Global Vectra and Himalayan Helicopter services in fake tickets; that petitioners have not only prepared fake websites but have also prepared fake tickets and received payments etc.

“Grant of bail to petitioners at this stage therefore shall only result in thwarting course of justice on facts. As per prosecution, the range of scam on hand is too big and many characters are yet to be traced and rounded up. In that sense, investigation is at initial stage and petitioners if let off at this stage, would not only adversely hamper the ongoing investigation having wide ramifications but such course would indeed tantamount to foiling further investigation in the case. Also, offence involving forgery of valuable security charged against petitioners during investigation – carries punishment upto life imprisonment, which itself speaks volumes about the enormity of the gravity of the allegations,” the Court observed.