The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday denied based wil to the accused had committed an offence booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA ),2016 on the allegations that he duped people financially by flaunting on social media morphed images with ministers and impersonating himself as person close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
An ECIR was registered by the opposite party/Enforcement Directorate based on an F.I.R. lodged as a Case under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 469, 471 I.P.C. and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000, against the applicant Mohammad Kashif.
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The arrest alleged the information received that the accused was involved in extortion of money from people for getting their works done from Government Department by impersonating himself as a close associate of Ministers of the Government of India. Inputs were generated from surveillance regarding national security and suspicious activities were noticed concerning him for the last two (02) years.
Mohammad Kashif extorted money by impersonating himself as a person close to the Prime Minister and other Ministers of the Government of India by unauthorizedly posting morphed/edited photos with the Prime Minister and other Ministers of the Government of India on his social media accounts being Facebook.
Posting of the said photographs was to influence people to gain personal financial benefits. The scrutiny further revealed that by influence gained on people by impersonating closeness to Ministers, he has got work contracts from Government of Rajasthan and other departments. He was intercepted by Noida Police in a car bearing Registration No. UP16 BL 0088 (Mercedes make) alongwith three mobile phones.
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It was found that he illegally earned money which has been deposited in his HDFC Bank in the name of his firm M/s Advice Allys’s . The offences under Sections 419, 420, 467 and 471 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 are covered under the definition of schedule offences as per Sections 2(1)(x) and 2(1)(y) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 ( PMLA ). Thus the money collected by the accused due to his criminal activities related to the schedule offences are Proceeds Of Crime as per Section 2(1) (u) of PMLA, 2002.
A prima facie case of money laundering under Section 3 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 punishable under Section 4 of the said Act appears to have been made out. An ECIR is thus assigned to the case and taken up for investigation under the provisions of PMLA, 2002.
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It was evident that the applicant was involved in posting morphed and edited photographs of himself along with the Prime Minister of India and other Ministers of Government of India. He had been impersonating and thus misrepresenting his status and extorting money from people for getting their work done through Government Agencies for personal financial gains.
The Court perused his Facebook and Instagram Accounts, which revealed postings of the morphed photographs along with other documents (invitation card in his name for the Oath Taking Ceremony of the Prime Minister of India, invitation card in his name for lunch with the Prime Minister of India, etc.), which gave a false belief that he was a person well known to them and thus succeeded in extorting them.
The bench of Justice Samit Gopal noted that the alleged recovery of huge amount of money and other related documents and articles corroborate his deeds and that there is nothing credible to overcome the twin conditions of Section 45 of PMLA, 2002. The court denied bail by stressing that the recovery of the huge amount of money and other related documents and articles corroborated his deeds.
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