City judge rejects bail application of accused
Srinagar: A city court here on Thursday rejected the bail application of an accused “involved” in the creation of a cloned website of J&K Health and Medical Education (H&ME) Department and issuing fake appointment orders to gullible citizens against money.
City Magistrate Srinagar, Fozia Paul rejected the bail petition of the accused Sajad Hussain Zargar, son of Mohammad Yousuf Zargar of Hamdania Colony, Bemina, saying the matter relates to a scam and “the need of impartiality and fair play requires distinctive modus operandi to lift the veil off such scams relating to economic offences.”
One of such ways, she said, is to keep the accused person in custody for a longer period so that there will be minimum hindrance and maximum efficiency in interrogation and no tampering with the evidence.
As per the police report, the accused has been arrested in case FIR No. 16/2023 of Cyber Police Station, Kashmir Zone, Srinagar for offences under section 66-D IT Act, 34, 120-B, 468 IPC.
It said that the police recently received a written communication from the Deputy Secretary H&ME department for registration of FIR.
It submitted “a clone/fake commercial website with URL https://Jk-gov.com has been reported to have been created in the name of H&ME department by some unknown persons. The data/interface actually borne on the official website of the H&ME department under the URL://hime.jk.gov.in has also been cloned.”
The complaint also said “fake appointment orders referencing to H&ME department of the UT of J&K have also been created and uploaded on the said website. As such, there is every apprehension that the data and the fake orders, so uploaded, may be misused by the unscrupulous elements to the detriment of public interest at large.”
Analysis of the fake appointment orders revealed that they were regarding appointment as Nursing Orderlies and Data Entry Operator, said the police.
An order was also found regarding placement of one Dr Rohini Gupta, Lecturer Pharmacology in Government Medical College, Jammu, as Assistant Professor. Another order was also found regarding release of funds in favour of Chief Executive Officer, SHA, ABPMJAY. There was also an order about the deputation of Dr Monika Pangotra, Medical Officer DH Udhampur, it added.
“The domain information of the fake website was checked and it was found that it is registered with Godaddy.com LLC. The domain name of the said website is registered as “jkgov.com” and created by one Prashant Mathur, resident of Sanjay Place, Agra. It had been purchased on 28.03.2023 at 01.06.27 AM IST for an amount of Rs 1202.58 under receipt ID: 2519679052.
“Moreover, during perusal of details, one Gmail id prashantmathuragar@gmail.com mentioned in the shipping/billing information surfaced. In order to get the details of the said id, communication was made with Gmail authorities, the details received from the Gmail authority were analyzed and during analysis, it was found that many phone numbers (10) are linked with the Gmail id prashantmathuragar@gmail.com,” the investigators told the court.
They said “ten candidates were found to have been issued fake appointment orders. Questioning of these candidates was carried out. It came to surface that these candidates were made to visit the office of the Directorate of Health, Bemina Srinagar and CMO office Srinagar for receiving appointment orders and for submission of documents.
“As such, the details of their visits along with the suspect persons were suspected to have been recorded in CCTV cameras installed in the said premises. One Ghulam Hassan Dar, actually offered jobs to them in the Health and Medical Education department as nursing orderly and data operators, for which they demanded money. After offering them jobs, some documents like qualification and DOB certificates, identity proofs were taken from these candidates in order to make them believe that some genuine process is going on. They were then told to wait for their appointment orders”.
The suspected persons, according to the police, pretended to be influential, linked with higher officers and as such convinced victims that they could arrange jobs for them in H&ME department and they were made to pay money in lieu of fake government Jobs. Consequently, they received some money as advance payments and were intending to extort huge amounts from the victims, after providing them fake appointment orders.”
The accused person Sajad admitted to his crime and was accordingly arrested in the instant case, police said.
After hearing the pro- and counter-arguments, the City Magistrate Fouzia Paul observed that the matter is a scam wherein the official website of the Health and Medical Education department has been cloned by the accused along with other persons who are still absconding.
“Issuing fake appointment orders to innocent people who have become victims of this fraud, is a matter of serious concern.
“It is a techno-crime punishable under section 66 of IT Act which is a social economic offence quite rampant and pervasive social wrong doing. Undoubtedly, it is the most consequential threat to a nation’s economy at large and law in particular,” she observed further.
The act of the accused person in connivance with other persons seems to be a well-planned and cultivated act, which hampers the wellbeing of a society since such crimes have the effect of alluring innocent people who fall victims into the hands of such fraudsters on the pretext of employment. The judge accordingly dismissed the bail application.
