Court Grants Bail in Cyber Fraud Case, Criticizes Wrong Legal Charges

A court granted bail to two accused in a cyber fraud case involving money siphonation via a bug in an online payment system. The court ruled penal provisions were misapplied, noting the case should be under the IT Act, wherein the offence is bailable.

A court has granted bail to two individuals accused of cyber fraud by exploiting a bug in an online payment system. The court criticized the use of incorrect penal provisions, stating that the Information Technology (IT) Act should have been the applied framework.

The hackers were booked under cheating and conspiracy sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which the court deemed inappropriate since the IT Act covers the specific nature of this crime. Magistrate Raghav Sharma recognized that the IT Act section 66 offences are bailable, contrary to the actions initially taken against the accused.

The judicial decision underscored the IT Act's precedence over general IPC laws in cyber-related crimes, noting that applying the ordinance correctly could have avoided unnecessary detention of the accused. The court's analysis concluded that the fraud executed via computer systems should be tried under the specialized provisions of the IT Act.

(With inputs from agencies.)