A man accused of making hoax calls to demand favours and money by impersonating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad has been granted bail by a Delhi court.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma allowed accused 33-year-old Krishan Kumar, an ex-employee of T-Series Super Cassettes Industries, to walk out of jail but restrained him from leaving the national capital. "The main allegation against Krishan as it stands as on date is related to making extortion calls to the complainant's manager namely Vir Singh in conspiracy with co-accused Vikas Dutt Sharma who has already been admitted to bail," the court said.
"Accused is running in judicial custody since September 23 and no further police custody remand was required by the IO, hence it appears that investigation qua him is complete and no useful purpose is going to be served by detaining him any further as his voice samples have already been taken," it said.
In an FIR registered in September, the firm's director Ved Prakash Chanana said he had been flooded with hoax calls for the past few months. Chanana, a resident of Greater Kailash-II, alleged that the accused persons had also impersonated BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and former Union minister Raghupati Sevugan, among others. "Accused Krishan Kumar is admitted to bail on furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 50,000 with one surety in the like amount with the condition that he shall report to the IO (investigating officer) in his office fortnightly and shall not leave the territory of NCR (national capital region) without giving prior intimation to IO and shall not hamper the investigation and intimidate any witness and shall join the probe as and when so directed by the IO," the court said.
Initially, Delhi Police had arrested Krishan. On his questioning, 34-year-old Vikas Dutt Sharma was apprehended for his alleged involvement in the case. Vikas was later enlarged on bail early this month. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police said Krishan, Vikas and his accomplices, one of whom is yet to be nabbed, were making hoax calls from three different numbers to officials of the firm to demand Rs 20 lakh and seek other favours.
The accused have been booked under section 419 (cheating by impersonation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 387 (extortion), 511 (attempt to commit an offence), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC.
While releasing Krishan on bail, the court also observed that so far as the "allegation pertaining to obtaining of SIM cards on the basis of forged documents is concerned, no victim or complainant has come forward to make complaint against the present accused".
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