A picture of the Uttarakhand High Court.
Credit: High Court of Uttarakhand
Nainital: The Uttarakhand High Court has directed the Reserve Bank of India, private banks, and telecom companies to be made parties in the probe into a scam where fake non-bailable warrants (NBWs) were allegedly issued in the names of judges and police officers to extort money.
Hearing the petition filed by Haridwar resident Surendra Kumar, a division bench of Chief Justice G Narendran and Justice Subhash Upadhyay said the scam is not only about cheating the common people but also challenges the credibility of the system by misusing the names of judges and police officers.
Taking serious cognisance of the matter, the high court converted the petition into a public interest litigation.
Kumar told the court a month ago, he received calls from two different numbers claiming that an NBW had been issued by a Dehradun court, and was asked to pay Rs 30,000 through four different scanner codes.
He said the Haridwar police were informed, but no action was taken.
Petitioner's lawyer Prabha Naithani argued that the NBW issued in the name of the Additional District Judge of Dehradun was fake, as no such case is pending in any court and no such judge is present in Haridwar or Dehradun.
People were intimidated through these fake NBWs and forced to make digital payments through QR codes, Naithani said.
Taking serious note, the high court said that private banks may also be complicit in this, as all the fraudulent accounts belong to private banks.
The court also directed the Reserve Bank of India, concerned private banks, and telecom companies to be made parties in the case.
During the hearing, Inspector General, Intelligence, Sunil Meena, Senior Superintendent of Police, Haridwar, Pramod Singh Dobal and Cyber Cell officials appeared virtually before the court.
The Haridwar SSP informed the court that the people who tried to defraud Kumar have been identified and will be arrested soon.