PRITHVIRAJ DAUKIYA Vs. STATE NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this application, the applicant seeks grant of regular bail in case arising out of FIR bearing no. 37/2024, registered at Police Station Cyber Police Dwarka, Delhi, for the commission of offence punishable under Ss. 420/120B/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereafter "IPC").

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that a complaint was filed by the victim, Sh. Mohinder Singh Grover, regarding an online fraud amounting to approximately Rs.45,00,000.00, committed on the pretext of offering high returns through online gold trading. The complainant alleged that he was first contacted through WhatsApp by a woman identifying herself as Anita, also known as Fan Annie, who claimed to be a gold analyst with the World Gold Council. She induced the complainant to invest in an alleged gold trading platform named "Malabar", representing it as a legitimate and profitable venture, and persuaded him to share his personal and financial details for opening a trading account. Acting under inducement, the complainant had transferred various amounts on different dates between April and June 2023 into seven bank accounts across different States, including accounts in the names of Autonome, Lucky Steel Fabrication, Sri Polamamba Congo Troop, Space Reality, Polasa Shyamu, Chetpally Sagar, and Letsfly. However, neither the principal amount nor any profit was ever returned to him. On these allegations, the present FIR was registered.

(3.) During investigation, it was revealed that the first transaction of Rs.10,000.00 made by the complainant on 23/4/2023 was credited to the ICICI Bank account of Autonome, operated by co-accused Sachin Malwiya. Co-accused Sachin Malwiya was arrested on 9/12/2024, and he disclosed that he had shared the details of the bank account and its linked SIM card with one Rahul Godara. Rahul Godara joined the investigation and disclosed that he had shared the said details with one of his friends, i.e. Prithviraj Daukiya @ Prince Daukiya (the present applicant), in good faith. WhatsApp chats between Rahul and Prithviraj confirmed that a request was made by the applicant herein for sharing the ID and password of net-banking of the aforesaid bank account with him. On 13/1/2025, the applicant was arrested in the present case, and during investigation, he had produced the SIM card linked to the bank account of firm Autonome. As per prosecution, the applicant disclosed that he had subsequently sold these bank account details and the linked SIM (No. 7229822207) to one Abbas for Rs.80,000.00, and received an advance of Rs.10,000.00 in cash, which he had transferred to co-accused Amit Chaudhary through UPI on 5/4/2023. Further, CDR analysis showed that the applicant had remained in touch with the said SIM even after transferring it. As per status report, the investigation revealed that the applicant is an active member of a cyber-fraud syndicate engaged in facilitating fraudulent financial transactions by using multiple bank accounts. His bank statements reflected suspicious transactions totaling Rs.25.00 lakhs, around the dates of the incident. As alleged, he has further failed to cooperate with the investigation by not disclosing the whereabouts of Abbas. The applicant was also found previously involved in two similar cyber-crime cases, i.e. FIR No. 522/2023 under Ss. 406/420 of IPC registered at PS Murlipura, Jaipur, and FIR No. 28/2023 under Sec. 420 of IPC registered at PS Cyber Crime, Jaipur Secretariat.