Nagpur: On Tuesday, Sontu alias Ananth Navratan Jain failed to make a scheduled appearance before the police and vanished in thin air.
Sources claimed that Sontu came to the High Court in the morning and later escaped from the court.
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Friday 27 Dec. 2024
Later, he went to a hotel in Ganeshpeth area and boarded an auto-rickshaw.
Within a span of 30 minutes, Sontu changed three auto-rickshaws. As the pre-arrest bail application was rejected by the High Court, Nagpur Police have launched a hunt to arrest the notorious fraudster.
His mobile phone has been switched off since morning, said cops.
It is pertinent to mention that, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had denied interim pre-arrest bail to online gaming fraudster Sontu alias Ananth Navratan Jain from Gondia.
Sontu is accused of engineering a massive gaming fraud and duping a Nagpur residentt of Rs 58 crore.
Justice M W Chandwani presided over the proceedings and cited the immense scope of the case as a crucial factor in rejecting Sontu’s pre-arrest bail application. The High Court determined that Sontu’s immediate arrest was necessary for evidence collection and information gathering by the investigation agency.
During the hearing, Sontu’s legal team requested an extension of the interim bail to approach the Supreme Court. However, this plea was also denied by the High Court. This decision comes after the High Court had reserved judgment on the bail application following a thorough examination of arguments presented by all parties involved.
Sontu had initially been granted interim pre-arrest bail on September 5, with orders to appear before the police on every alternate day. However, on Tuesday, Sontu failed to make the scheduled appearance before the police.
Investigating Officer (IO) and Police Inspector Shubhangi Deshmukh brought this matter to the Court’s attention. Sontu’s fraud came to fore after the Nagpur Police raided his Gondia house on July 22, and seized Rs 17 crore in cash, 14 kg of gold, and 294 kg of silver with a combined worth of Rs 27 crore.
On August 2, Rs 85 lakh cash and gold worth over Rs 4.5 crore were found in the bank lockers of Sontu and his family members. The investigation into this on-line gaming fraud case started when a Nagpur-based businessman approached the police, claiming to have been duped of Rs 58 crore by Sontu’s gaming platform. He alleged that the results were manipulated, leading to substantial financial losses.
Adv Shrirang Bhandarkar appeared for the complainant while Adv Devendra Chavan represented the accused.
