Judge Smt. G.N. Bagrodia, remanded Dr. Gaurav Bagga and Ankesh Khandelwal to police custody till 27th October 2023. The accused persons, whom the police claim to be involved in the recent infamous gaming App scam of 78 crores alleged to have been committed by Anant alias Sontu Navratan Jain were arrested on 20/10/2023 from Gondia.
The prosecution claimed that cash component of Rs. 1.35 crores and 3.20 kgs of gold came to be recovered in the search made in the house of Dr. Gaurav Bagga. As such, in order to unearth the fraud practiced by Dr. Bagga and the bank manager Ankesh Khandelwal, the prosecution sought police custody remand of 8 days from the court.
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Tuesday 18 Feb. 2025
Adv. Prakash Naidu, opposing the prayer of the prosecution, informed the court that the prosecution had registered a fresh FIR against the alleged Anant @ Sontu Jain and had slapped section 420, 409, r/w sec. 120-B of the I.P. Code against the accused persons including Dr. Garima Bagga, Dheeraj Jain, Shraddha Jain, Kusum Devi Jain, and others.
Adv. Prakash Naidu pointed out that, the complainant Vikrant Agrawal had lodged an FIR with the Cyber Police Station Nagpur and had contended that, the accused Anant Jain had lured him to invest money in gaming App, Diamondexch.com and had informed that he can earn money from the said App.
The complainant has alleged that, initially he had invested Rs. 8,50,000/- and subsequently time and again from 18/11/2021 to 13/07/2023, he had invested about 78 crores in the said App, however, whenever, he used to win, a technical error would crop up and he was not getting the amount and even though he had won the money was not transferred to him.
Subsequent thereto, it transpired that the accused Anant @ Sontu Jain and his men are doing manipulation in the said App, whereby, a fraud was practice upon him. The prosecution’s case in the FIR lodged by Vikrant Agrawal was that, they had searched the premises of Anant Jain and a cash component of more than Rs. 16 crores and golden bricks worth more than 10 crores and details of a few immovable properties were seized.
After Anant @ Sontu Jain came to be arrested, based on his confession, the police officials of Gittikhadan Nagpur suo moto registered an FIR through Madhuri Nerkar, Assistant Police Inspector for the offence under section 420, 409 and 120-B of the I.P. Code against the Doctor couple and the manager of the bank and others. Adv. Naidu argued that, going by the version of the prosecution, and assuming the contention of the prosecution to be true and correct, but not admitting the same, the prosecution has alleged that the investigating machinery had issued a letter to the Manager, Axis Bank, Gondia, Ankesh Khandelwal on 23/07/2023 and informed him that the bank accounts and lockers standing in the name of Anant @ Sontu Jain and his family members be freezed. Despite having been communicated with the said letter, the manager Ankesh in connivance with Dr. Gaurav Bagga and his wife Garima Bagga proceeded to open new lockers in the said bank and in the time frame between 23/07/2023 and 1/08/2023, they had proceeded to open the lockers standing in the names of Sontu Jain and his family and had transferred gold and cash worth more than 9 crores in their lockers.
The FIR also contends that having done so, Gaurav Bagga had thereafter removed three huge bags from the locker and had handed it over to some person so appointed by Sontu Jain and that the said transaction involved more than 9 crores. As such, the police machinery proceeded to search the house of the doctor couple and they recovered 1.35 crores and gold weighing 3.02 kgs.
Refuting the prayer of the prosecution, adv. Naidu argued that, the sections as had been slapped against the accused persons were not at all in consonance with the facts and were not attracted, since, neither had the accused persons cheated or dishonestly induced any person to deliver any property or valuable security and as such, 420 of the I.P.Code was not maintainable against the accused persons. Likewise, in order to invoke the provisions of 409, the prosecution has to make out a case that the accused persons had been entrusted with the property or with any dominion over the property in his capacity of a public servant and had committed criminal breach of trust in respect of that property.
As such, it was argued that, neither did the property belong to the police authorities and it is not the case that the doctor couple and the manager had cheated Sontu Jain. At the most, the Manager can be slapped with section 188 of the I.P.Code for deliberate disobedience of the order so issued by the police officer to freeze the bank accounts and lockers of Sontu Jain and the said offence was a bailable offence.
Likewise, it is not the case of the prosecution that the Bagga couple were aware of the fact that the said money and gold was involved in any crime and that there was any direction of the police authorities and that the act of shipping of the said gold and cash component by Dr. Gaurav Bagga from the locker Jain family to his own locker, and subsequent thereto, by allegedly handing it over to some person as directed by Sontu Jain was an act committed out of friendship and not with a mens rea to commit any offence. Adv. Naidu also argued that according to the prosecution, they had retrieved the deleted call recordings from the mobile phone of the accused Sontu and that they could conclude from the said recordings that Sontu Jain had assured to give Rs. 4 crores to Ankesh Khandelwal Bank Manager to defy the order of the police officials and it had also been ascertained in the recordings that, there were arguments between Sontu and Ankesh since Sontu had failed to pass over Rs. 4 crores as assured and as such nothing remained to be seized either from Ankesh and Dr. Bagga. As such, it was pleaded that the accused are innocent.
The court proceeded to remand the accused persons till 27/10/2023 by opining that recovery of cash and gold worth 9 crores is yet to be materialized and that in order to facilitate the said investigation, the custodial interrogation of the accused was warranted.
Adv. Prakash Naidu, Mayank Gupta, Homesh Chauhan, Mitesh Bais, Surabhi Godbole Naidu represented the accused. API Milind Chourasia alongwith the APP represented the State.
….Adv. Prakash Naidu
