App fraud case: Karnataka HC refuses to let Chinese woman go home

BENGALURU: Karnataka high court has denied permission to a Chinese national, accused in a loan app fraud case, to visit China for two months to be with her ailing 80-year-old father.
“I decline to accede to the request. The petitioner is an accused in not one but seven crimes,” Justice M Nagaprasanna said, while dismissing the petition filed by Chinese national Hu Xiaolin.
Referring to the bar in China on foreigners in Hu’s circumstances from leaving the country, the judge said: “If laws in China prohibit such exit of a foreign national under the aforesaid circumstances, laws of India cannot be made flexible on any score whatsoever, as it is a case of a Chinese national who is involved in multiple crimes.”
Hu had come to India in 2017 and married Indian national Anas Ahmed. They are currently residing in Bengaluru.
‘Accused got married and got medical visa with fake docus’
A complaint was registered against Ahmed in a multi-crore Power Bank Application loan-apps fraud under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2008, based on a complaint filed by payment gateway Razorpay Software. The petitioner’s premises were searched and documents, including passport and identity cards, seized.
The petitioner was arrested and released on bail with a condition that she should not leave the country without permission from the court. Though certain other conditions were relaxed, the one relating to leaving India remained in place.
Last year, Hu Xiaolin moved the trial court seeking permission to leave India from June 30, 2023 till Aug 30, 2023, to meet her ailing father; the same was rejected by an order dated Sept 4, 2023. She then approached the high court.
H Shanthi Bhushan, deputy solicitor general of India, said the petitioner had come to India in 2017 on a tourist visa, got married, and got the visa converted to a medical visa on a fake medical certificate issued by a hospital run by her husband.
Justice M Nagaprasanna noted the crimes Hu is involved in are so intricate that police have not yet been able to file the chargesheet as it is a scam that travels beyond the shores of one state.