Judge Smt. G.N. Bagrodia, remanded Dr. Gaurav Bagga , Ankesh Khandelwal and Dinesh Kothari to police custody till 30th October. 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 and on 22nd 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. Based on the confession of Gaurav Bagga, wherein the police claim that Gaurav Bagga admitted to have handed over the cash and golden ornaments drawn form the locker of family members of Sontu jain to Harish Kothari, Harish was initially interrogated for 2 days and was subsequently arrested on the 22nd. Police claim that they had recovered cash and gold worth Rs 3 crore 26 lacs from the search made that Harish’s residence. It was contended by the police that still an amount of 62 lacs remained to be recovered and had sought extension police custody remand of all the 3 accused.
Gold Rate
Wednesday 15 Jan. 2025
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 contended 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 firstly ought to have registered offence against the complainant under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act and if at all the allegations of the complainant were true and correct, the police machinery ought to have entrusted the matter to the Direcorate of Enforcement department for through investigation under the PMLA Act coupled with investigation from the Income Tax department as well. Blaming the prosecution action to biased, Adv Naidu contended that without any genesis and authenticity to the claim of the complainant,. Much hue and cry has been raised by the prosecution in trying to make the Court believe that a fraud of 58 crores has been committed. So also, the ingredients as is mandated by the provisions of the Indian Penal; Code are blatantly lacking in the report as has been lodged by the complainant and the complainant himself has proceeded to play an online game and claims to have lost crores of Rupees. That for the self oriented acts of the complainant, whereby he himself has played the online games and despite having lost initially, he willfully kept playing till he lost 58crores, does not permit any sane mind to accept the fact that the complainant was lured and was cheated upon. Rather the claim of the complainant that he gave black money to Sontu or persons appointed by Sontu does not appeal to any sane and conscious mind and the claim of the complainant was required to have been firstly scrutinized by the prosecution, rather than the prosecution rushing to play the unwarranted blame game, hand in glove with the complainant.
Refuting the claim for PCR Advocate Prakash Naidu argued that sufficient time had been granted to the prosecution to unearth the alleged truth and that all the accused persons had fully cooperated with the investigating machinery and had spilled the factuality’s and the claim of the prosecution that they still have to unravel the whereabouts of 62 lacs was nothing more than an unwarranted attempt to harass the accused persons. 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, Dinesh Kothari has accepted that after receipt of the cash and gold from Gaurav Bagga, he has transferred the same through Hawala to the destination as had been instructed by Sontu Jain. As such, no recoveries remained to be effected from the accused persons. The court proceeded to remand the accused persons till 30/10/2023 by opining that recovery of cash of 62 lacs 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.
