A special court for CCB-CBCID cases in Chennai on Thursday dismissed a bail application moved by Yogendra Vasupal, co-founder of online home stay aggregator Stayzilla. Mr. Vasupal was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on March 14, 2017, on charges of cheating and criminal intimidation.
Dismissing his bail plea, Special Metropolitan Magistrate M.M. Kabir granted one day custody of the entrepreneur to the CCB. "The CCB is granted custody of the accused from 3 p. m. today till 3 p.m. Friday," the Judge said.
On Wednesday, during the arguments in his bail plea Mr. Vasupal contended that the criminal charges foisted against him are part of pressure tactics to settle a civil dispute.
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Criminal proceedings were initiated against the petitioner based on a complaint from C.S. Aditya of Jigsaw Advertising and Solutions Private Limited, alleging that Stayzilla had failed to make payments for services rendered since February 2016 and has defrauded him of ₹1.69 crore. A case was registered by the CCB against Mr. Vasupal and his partner Sarjit Singhi for offences under Sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating), 506 (i) (Criminal Intimidation) of the IPC.
Moving the bail application, Mr. Kumar said, “There is no written contract for the services rendered. It was all an understanding between the parties." Pointing out that the whole dispute was of a civil nature, the senior counsel contended that the least police should have done was to have enquired the petitioner about what the dispute was actually about and that they cannot unilaterally believe what the complainant has said and arrest the petitioner.
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Opposing the application, Additional Public Prosecutor S. Manual Arasu said, “Prima facie this is a clear case of cheating. The other accused is absconding and is yet to be arrested and it is too early to allow the application considering the gravity of the offence."
The Prosecutor then moved an application on behalf of the CCB seeking two days custody of the accused.