New Delhi, 13 August (H.S.):

The Supreme Court has stayed an order of the Rajasthan High Court directing a government school teacher, who lost Rs 20 lakh in a cyber fraud, to bear the expenses of the police investigation. The order was passed by a bench headed by Justice JB Pardiwala.

The teacher had filed a petition challenging observations made by the High Court while rejecting the bail pleas of two accused in the case. The High Court had observed that the cyber fraud occurred because of the teacher's “greed”. It noted that the complainant earned more than Rs 80,000 a month and had transferred Rs 20 lakh to the accused after being lured by promises of higher returns.

During the hearing, the lawyer appearing for the complainant-teacher submitted that the High Court had directed the complainant himself to bear the expenses incurred in investigating the case.

An FIR was registered in January in connection with the matter. The accused were alleged to have defrauded the teacher in the name of an SBI Life Insurance policy and obtained nearly Rs 20 lakh from him through multiple transactions.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar