Delhi court grants bail to 9 persons accused in $15 mn cyberfraud case

The Rouse Avenue court on Thursday granted bail to nine accused persons in a transnational cyber fraud case.

This case is linked to an alleged fraud committed against US citizens worth $ 15 million.

In July this year, the CBI arrested 43 accused people from a Gurugram call centre in connection with the case.

Special CBI Judge Amitabh Rawat allowed bail pleas of Dhruv Khattar, Ritesh Kumar, Ravindra Gupta, Hazim Imtiyaz, Mir Gazanfar Gul, Arpit Singh Chatwal, Mayank Verma, Yashu Prasad, and Abhishek Bisht.

The court granted bail on the furnishing of a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of the like amount.

 

The court noted that all offences are magistrate triable and the accused persons have been in custody since July 24, 2024.

While granting bail, the court considered the argument that the accused are young and have no criminal record. Nothing has been shown to indicate that they are a flight risk or that they can tamper with the evidence. This case is essentially document-based, and digital devices have already been seized.

It was argued by the counsels for the accused that the arrest of the applicant is illegal, arbitrary, perverse and violative of Section 187(1) BNSS, Section 47 BNSS and Article 22 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of India and mandate of law as prescribed by the Supreme Court in a catena of judgements and the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of India.

CBI had filed a reply stating that the present case had been registered on July 22, 2024, under sections 120-B r/w 420, 467, 468 & 471 of IPC and Section 66D of IT Act, 2000, against unknown accused persons, on the basis of source information.

The allegations, in brief, are that during the period from November 2022 to April 2024, unknown accused persons in criminal conspiracy with each other operated illegal call centres from New Delhi and adjoining areas an intent to target US nationals and subject them to tech fraud.

It is further alleged that during the said period, the accused persons operated under pseudonymous identities, 'Ellie Thomas,' 'Max Rogers', 'Jason Watson' and 'Rick Taylor', etc., and targeted US citizens by using virtual TextNow contact numbers.

During the said period, the accused persons targeted the US nationals by delivering pop-up alert messages on their computer screens as if the same were sent by Microsoft. When the US victims contacted the numbers displayed in the said pop-up messages, they were connected to the accused persons, the CBI alleged.

Thereafter, the accused persons impersonating Microsoft tech support falsely informed the US nationals through virtual contact numbers via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that their computers had been hacked or their identities had been stolen/ misused, it added.

In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, the accused persons induced the US victims to download remote utility software to have remote access to their computer systems under the guise of repairing their computer systems, agency alleged.

The accused persons further induced the US victims to access their bank accounts under the cover of verifying if any fraud had been committed in their bank accounts by hacking their computer systems. In this way, the accused persons got unauthorized remote access to the bank accounts of the US victims, the agency alleged.

The accused persons further induced the US victims to wire transfer the funds from their bank accounts to the Federal Reserve to protect their funds from hackers. In this way, the accused persons targeted the US nationals and subjected them to tech fraud to the tune of $ 15 million during the said period, agency further alleged.

The court said that no doubt, there are serious allegations of an illegal Call centre being run from the raided premises from Gurgaon and foreign nationals have been cheated by delivery of pop-up messages on the computer screens as if sent by Microsoft, gaining remote access to their computer systems, wiring transfer of funds from bank accounts to Federal Reserves in the guise of prevention from hacking and transfer of funds with accused adopting pseudonymous names.

"However, as per the FIR, the period under investigation is November 2022 till April 2024. As per the reply filed, the call centre was operated from Noida and same was closed in October 2023 and illegal operation began in the name of Innonet Technology OPC Pvt Ltd at Gurgaon in 2024," the court observed.

"Thus, the role of the accused in reference to the period under investigation and the place at Gurgaon or Noida needs to be specified. On being asked, it was apprised that hard-disc data pertaining to Noida is still to be retrieved to find connection with the accused," the court pointed out.

Advocate Bharat Arora, along with Vikhyat Oberoi and Nishita Gupta, appeared for accused Abhishek Bisht and Arpit Singh Chatwal.

The CBI had arrested 43 people, including 4 women in this case, from Gurugram. It is alleged that US citizens were defrauded of $ 15 million.