Mumbai, March 13 The Bombay High Court has denied bail to a man accused of trafficking educated youth by falsely promising them jobs abroad, only to coerce them into carrying out cyber fraud activities, citing the serious nature of the crime.
A bench of Justices A S Gadkari and S C Chandak noted that there was a prima facie case against the accused, Jerry Philips Jacob, that he trafficked unemployed but educated youth from India under the guise of providing them with lawful employment in foreign companies.
After being trafficked, the victims were forced to engage in acts of deceiving people from other countries for unlawful gains, the court said.
"The offence is serious in nature. It appears that if released on bail, the appellant is likely to abscond and tamper with evidence. Therefore, we are not inclined to grant him bail," it said.
A copy of the order dated March 10 was made available on Friday.
In his plea, Jacob, who was arrested in March 2024, claimed that the victims were informed about the nature of employment and provided with formal employment contracts.
The petitioner argued that it cannot be said that he had engaged in the inducement of trafficking victims, luring them or subjecting them to slavery, and contended that charging him for slavery was illegal.
The court, in its order, however, noted that when the victims had enquired about the nature of work for which they were asked to go abroad, it was impressed upon them that they would be involved in lawful employment.
However, the victims were directed to operate fake social media profiles and develop online identities to initiate conversations with people from other countries regarding cryptocurrency investment opportunities and induce them to deposit money for the same, it stated.
It further held that the evidence submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case, indicated that Jacob was fully aware of the fraudulent activities.
The NIA has alleged that between December 2022 and March 2023, the accused and four others, including two foreign nationals, targeted Indian youth proficient in computers and the English language with a false promise of lucrative jobs in Thailand and then coerced them into working in fraudulent call centres on tourist visas for pecuniary gains.
The victims were being recruited and sent from India to the Golden Triangle SEZ in Laos via Thailand. Upon arrival, they were asked to make fake profiles on social media applications to scam people.
The NIA alleged that the victims were tortured and subjected to slavery there.
According to the prosecution, when a few of the victims approached the Indian Embassy seeking to be rescued, the accused persons abused, assaulted them and took away their passports. The victims were later rescued by local police and repatriated to India, following which they lodged a complaint here.
The accused were booked under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code for human trafficking and slavery, along with relevant provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Act.