PANAJI
A 'Google Pay' transaction reflecting in the savings account at a Madhya Pradesh SBI branch cooked the goose of Anand Gautam alias Basu, currently cooling his heels in judicial custody at the Colvale jail, accused of procuring girls from neighbouring States and trafficking them in Goa.
The Bombay High Court bench of Justice M S Jawalkar denied Gautam bail earlier this week and held that his "complicity in the crime is very much there" and that he has received money through 'Google Pay' from the victim girls.
It is perhaps for the first time that the Goa police got its prosecutorial evidence seemingly water tight in a human trafficking case.
Gautam was nabbed by the Crime Branch in a raid it executed based on a tip off in October last year in which victim girls were rescued. Details of his bank account at a State Bank of India branch at Ujjain Road, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh showed a Google Pay transaction in which money was credited by the victim girls.
In addition Gautam's mobile SIM card details also threw up evidence indicating his complicity in the crime, Justice Jawalkar quoted Special Public Prosecutor Ashwin Bhobe as arguing to deny him bail.
"I have considered the arguments of the applicant and the learned Public Prosecutor. After going through the statements on record, it appears that complicity of the present applicant is very much there. He has received money through Google Pay from the victim girls as there is prima facie evidence to that effect and such payment is confirmed by the statements of the victim girls," Justice Jawalkar said in the order she pronounced on Tuesday.
Justice Jawalkar said there is no case made out to enlarge the applicant on bail and accordingly rejected the application but directed the trial court (Sessions Court) to conclude the trial as early as possible.
Justice Jawalkar also rejected a separate bail application of Gautam in two other similar trafficking cases booked against him in Calangute and Margao police stations.
