HYDERABAD: Justice K Surender of Telangana high court dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Rohit Agarwal, a logistics partner of Amazon, who was booked by Hyderabad police for allegedly diverting computer peripherals worth ₹1.35 crore from a huge consignment of ₹3.5 crore.
Agarwal collected the consignment from Karshanram Patel of Secunderabad-based AnandIT Infotech India Private Ltd during its transit to an Amazon godown in Haryana.
Dharmesh Jaiswal, counsel for Patel, said though it looked like a simple case of an accused withdrawing his anticipatory bail application, his case provided more insights into the business dynamics of e-commerce giant Amazon. “In fact, Amazon has introduced the system of videographing products at various stages only after this scam surfaced,” he said.
Hyderabad police, who investigated the case after receiving a complaint from Patel, recovered ₹12 lakh worth of products from Agarwal’s employees. That was the reason why they opposed the anticipatory bail application of Agarwal before the sessions court and the bail was rejected there.
Agarwal preferred an appeal before the high court urging it to grant him anticipatory bail in the event of his arrest by cops. Patel filed an implead petition before the high court, saying that he would bring to the notice of the court the modus operandi of Agarwal.
It was at this stage, Agarwal withdrew his anticipatory bail plea from the high court contending that police who opposed his bail plea before the trial court have now issued him a notice under section 41-A of CrPC and hence he wants to withdraw his application. The judge allowed him to do so and dismissed his plea as withdrawn. Like several agents who enter into third party agreements with Amazon, Agarwal also collects products from the sellers on behalf of Amazon and transports them to various warehouse facilities of Amazon all across the country. He owns a firm called ‘Amaze Solutions’ which has an agreement with Amazon.
