Chennai: The Madras high court has denied bail to three Canadian nationals arrested in connection with ATM fraud and later secured when they attempted to escape from West Bengal while on bail.
Dismissing thebail petitions filed by Sugananthan, Muralitharan and Prakash, Justice S. Vaidyanathan said as serious allegations were made with regard to ATM fraud, this court expects the trial court to take up the case and dispose of it on day-to-day basis and shall not adjourn the matter beyond two working days at any point of time and bring the issue to a logical conclusion, preferably within three months.
The prosecution case was that totally there were six accused in this case. The petitioners along with other accused were alleged to have attempted to withdraw money by using fake ATM cards at the Canara Bank ATM Centre situated inside the domestic airport, Meenambakkam, Chennai.
They were arrested on May 29, 2013. After they were granted bail, they have been complying with the conditions imposed on them and subsequently they failed to appear and sign before the police. They violated the directions of the government regarding the place of stay and bail conditions imposed by the court and the bail granted to them was cancelled by this court.
Thereafter, this court directed to arrest the petitioners who were in Dum Dum Central Correctional Home, Kolkata, and they were secured and produced before the XI Metropolitan Magistrate on October 9, 2015. Since they were foreign nationals, they may leave India at any time, the prosecution added.
The judge said on a perusal of the facts, it was crystal clear that the petitioners attempted to escape from West Bengal. There was also a lookout notice. The accused have also been caught while trying to withdraw money from ATM.
The contention of the petitioners that Accused-1 was granted bail and accused-2 was permitted to leave the country after grant of bail will not advance the case of the petitioners to get the relief sought for, as rightly pointed out by the prosecution that AI and A2 have complied with the bail conditions and they have not violated any of the conditions stipulated by the court. But, the intention of the petitioners appears to escape from the country, the judge added.
