CRM-M19816 of 2009 (O&M) 1 In the High Court for the States of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. Decided on Aug 18,2009. Rajwinder Kaur -- Petitioner vs. State of Punjab --Respondent. CORAM:HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN Present: Mr.D.S.Pheruman,Advocate, for the petitioner Mr.Ranbir Singh Rawat,A.A.G.Punjab. Rakesh Kumar Jain, J: The petitioner has applied for anticipatory bail apprehending her arrest in case registered vide FIR No.258 dated 04.7.2009 under Sections 419,420,468,471,120-B IPC at Police Station, Civil Lines, Amritsar. The aforesaid FIR has been registered on the complaint of Himanshu Thapliyal, Assistant Manager Operation Planet, Edu Pvt. Limited, 101, Greenwood Plaza, Greenwood City, Sector 45, Gurgaon. In brief, the allegations are that M/S.Planet Edu.Pvt. Limited is having its Corporate office at Sector 45,Gurgoan and has its branch office at 41, Feroz Gandhi Market Ludhiana (Punjab) and is engaged in the business of conducting and facilitating International English Language Test System (in short,'IELTS') all over the country, through its office and test CRM-M19816 of 2009 (O&M) 2 centres on behalf of IDP, IELTS, Australia. It is further alleged that on 4.7.2009, IELTS conducted a test at Hotel MK International, Ranjeet Avenue, Amritsar. At that time, persons namely Shikha Rai, Sidarth Sehgal, Surjit Singh, Shivani Sharma and Sorab Dinkar Verma came to the registration desk for admission for test and submitted their photographs and signed the terms and conditions of the IELTS Examination. They obtained admission tickets for taking the examination. The officers responsible for taking the examination became suspicious qua the genuineness of the passports shown to them. After scrutiny, it was found that the above said persons have tampered with the passports by putting their own photographs on them in order to take examination on behalf of some other persons by way of impersonation. Immediately, the aforesaid persons were apprehended. Their passports were taken into custody and they were handed over to the police. It was then found that the aforesaid persons were impersonating the candidates namely Ms. Gurdish Kaur Gill, Gurvinder Singh, Ranjit Singh, Rajwinder Kaur and Navdeep. It is pertinent to mention here that before coming to this Court, the petitioner had applied for anticipatory bail before the learned Addl.Sessions Judge, Amritsar, which was dismissed on 14.7.2009 on the ground that the petitioner is the beneficiary in the entire game of cheating as test was being taken by those persons who are apprehended at the spot by tampering their passports which were naturally handed over to them by the petitioner. Learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that in order to take higher education abroad, there is a condition that at the time of grant of visa to aspirants who wanted to go to Australia, he should go through CRM-M19816 of 2009 (O&M) 3 IELTS and obtain a particular standard/ marks. It is further submitted that the company like the complainant have opened various centres through out the country alluring innocent students assuring them that they shall get them visa by completing all the formalities including IELTS and shall send them to Australia. It is further submitted that under this allurement, the agents in Amritsar have taken the amounts from Rs. 3,00,000/- to Rs.5,00,000/- from individual student and collected their passports by obtaining signatures on various documents to complete formalities. It is submitted that the petitioner had paid Rs. 2,00,000/- to the complainant in this regard. It is also submitted that neither the petitioner was aware of any test to be conducted by the complainant company nor she handed over the passports to a person who is alleged to have impersonated. Therefore, it is submitted that no offence has been committed by the petitioner. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have perused the record. It is more or less admitted by the petitioner that an amount of Rs.2,00,000/- was paid by her in order to get all the formalities completed for the purpose of seeking admission in an educational institution in Australia. It is un-comprehensible that a person much-less a student who is desirous of getting admission in Australia is not aware of the procedure of passing the IELTS. The petitioner is a beneficiary whose passport has been found in possession of the person who has been arrested in the course of his taking the examination by impersonation. Thus, keeping in view the seriousness of the offence and the fact that the investigation in the matter is required to unearth the big racket which is in operation, I do not find it to be a fit case for grant of CRM-M19816 of 2009 (O&M) 4 anticipatory bail. Hence the bail application is hereby dismissed. Aug 18,2009 (Rakesh Kumar Jain) RR Judge