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Synopsis

Last week, the Supreme Court granted interim protection to a 24 year old girl against whom FIRs were registered across different States on account of the role she played in her employment with Omelette Private Ltd. which are stated to be predatory Chinese lending Apps.

Priyanshi Kandpal, the accused is said to have played the role of a Mandarin translator.

The allegation against Kandpal was of running a pan India operation though she claimed to not even be qualified to develop mobile applications.

Notably, she had worked with the company for a year.

A bench of Justices SK Kaul and Aravind Kumar noted that Kandpal was arrested and remained in custody for five months before getting released on bail.

Court was told that the accused girl had now been served with notice under Section 91, CrPC directing her to join investigation with the police in the State of Odisha. She was also said to have received summons from EOWs to which she promptly joined the investigation.

Kandpal submitted that she was arrested from her residence in Haldwani, Uttarakhand in violation of the guidelines laid down in the notable judgement of Arnesh Kumar and pursuant to her arrest in the first FIR, she was arrested in multiple FIR’s as a result of which she had to approach different Jurisdictional Courts for grant of bail and remained in custody for a period of over 5 months.

It was further contended that the Indian employees working with such companies, who are unaware about the illicit operations being run in the background by such companies, are targeted by the prosecuting agencies while the controlling individuals of Chinese origin are beyond the reach of the prosecuting agency.

In this backdrop, a prayer was made seeking a protective order of interim bail not only in respect of the FIR which has now been registered but also in respect of the FIRs which will hereafter be registered on the same subject matter.

Accordingly, while issuing notice returnable in four weeks, the Supreme Court ordered thus,

"We are inclined to accede to the request of the petitioner and direct that in case of FIR No.26/2022 in CR No.16/2022 dated 25.01.2022 registered at PS Central Zone Cyber Police Station, Worli, Mumbai or any further FIR registered against the petitioner, she shall be enlarged on bail on the same terms on which she was enlarged earlier.."

Kandpal was represented by Senior Advocate Anupam Lal Das, along with Advocates Kartikeya Singh, Samarth Shandilya, Puru Jain, and Anirudh Singh, and AOR Lzafeer Ahmad B. F.

Case Title: PRIYANSHI KANDPAL vs. UNION OF INDIA & ORS