Dismissed

Divyangbhai Kamleshbhai Raval v. the State of Maharashtra and Anr.

Bombay HC13 Nov 2024BA/4656/2024

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Regular bail application by a director accused in a CBI case of operating illegal call centres defrauding US victims through impersonation and tech-support scams under BNS and IT Act provisions. The court found prima facie complicity from seized digital evidence and held Section 35 BNSS arrest safeguards were complied with.

What the court decided

AI extract

Divyangbhai Kamleshbhai Raval vs the State of… — Cheating and Forgery | Bombay HC (2024)

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

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CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

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CRIMINAL BAIL APPLICATION NO. 4656 OF 2024

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Divyangbhai Kamleshbhai Raval ... Applicant. V/s.

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The State of Maharashtra & Anr. … Respondents.

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Mr Shubhash Jha a/w Ms Pushpa Ganediwala, Siddharth Jha, Anima Mishra, Ashish Saxena, Anshu Agrawal, Sumeet Upadhyay, Apeksh Sharma i/b. Hulyalkar Subhash, Advocates for Applicant

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Ms Geeta P. Mulekar, APP for the State.

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Mr Kuldeep S. Patil a/w Ms Sanika Joshi, Ms Saili Dhuru, Advocates for the Respondent No.2-Union of India.

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Digitally signed RAJIVBABARAOJI by RAJIVBABARAOJIRAUT RAUT Date: 2024.12.05 18:59:52 +0530

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CORAM : ANIL S. KILOR, J. DATED : DECEMBER 04, 2024.

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PC:

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Heard.

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By this application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure the applicant is seeking bail in Case No. RC2312024S0010 registered by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), International Operations Division, New Delhi on 24/09/2024 for the offences punishable under Sections 61 and 318 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (“BNS”) and Section 66D read with Section 75 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (I.T. Act).

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That the allegation in brief are that the applicant-Divyangbhai, Director of M/s Atriya Global Services Pvt. Ltd and Shri Vikas Kumar Tarachand Nimar, Director of M/s V. C. Infrometrix Pvt. Ltd., in criminal conspiracy with each other and with other accused persons viz. Kartik Kumar Hareshbhai Patel, Mahesh Bandi, Takshil Mehul Kumar Shah, Sahil Vanzara, Aakash Sankhla, Tirth Kumar Rameshbhai Patel, Hitesh Vinodkumar Vijayvargi, Pritesh Navinchandra Patel, Mohammed Irfan Ansari, Shri Ashmat Ali Ahmad Sheikh, Akshay Patswal, Titu Patswal, Salman, Ranga, Bhanu Prasad, Zeeshan Bakhtawar and others have been operating illegal Call Centers in the name and style of M/s Atriya Global Services Pvt. Ltd, M/s V. C. Infrometrix Pvt Ltd and M/s Viajes Solutions at Ahmedabad, Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Pune since June, 2024. The accused persons are allegedly engaged in a large scale transnational technology enabled financial crime network.

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It is further alleged that the accused persons have been operating under pseudonymous identities and by impersonation from the aforesaid illegal call centers and have been targeting foreign nationals especially from the United States of America online, under the guise of providing them tech support services. The accused persons while targeting to deliberately cheat the foreign victims by falsely informing them that their computer systems have been hacked or their identities have been stolen or illegal transactions have been made in their bank accounts or multiple suspicious orders have been placed in their names via Amazon or

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they were under surveillance of law enforcement agencies and thereby induced them to wire transfer the funds from their bank accounts in the bank accounts shared to them by the accused persons or purchase international gift card-sand share the codes of the same or withdraw funds from their bank accounts and deposit the same at Crypto ATMs in the Crypto wallets shared to them by the accused persons, under the guise of protecting / safeguarding the funds available in their bank accounts, thereby causing extensive wrongful financial losses to victims and wrongful financial gains to themselves.

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It appears from the record that on 28/07/2024 the accused persons targeted one US victim Mr. John online, falsely informing him that criminal investigation had been initiated against him and that Internal Revenue Service of US Treasury had already been informed about the suspicious transactions in his bank account and they induced the victim to transfer USD 20,000 from his bank account in the account provided to him by the accused persons for securing his innocence.

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It appears from the record that, accused persons targeted another US victim on 11/07/2024 and induced the victim to transfer an amount of USD 20,000 and thereby defrauded the said victim. It is revealed that on 23/07/2024, the accused persons targeted another US victim online and induced the victim to deposit Crypto Currency (BTC) worth USD 15,000 in the Crypto Wallet maintained in the name of the accused

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persons. It is further alleged that the accused persons have targeted several other US victims online under the guise of providing tech support services and fraudulently got access to their computer systems and bank accounts through remote access software and defrauded them. The accused are using sophisticated means to channelize proceeds of crime and disperse it illegally.

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I have heard Shri Jha, learned counsel for the applicant and the learned counsel for the respondent-CBI.

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Shri Jha, learned counsel for the applicant vehemently argued that there is no compliance of Section 35 of the BNSS. It is submitted that the maximum punishment in the alleged offence is seven years and therefore, it is mandatory on the part of the Investigating Agency to issue notice before arresting the applicant. It is submitted that no reasons are recorded for arrest as contemplated under Section 35 of BNSS in lieu of the notice. In support of his argument, he has placed reliance on the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of Arnesh Kumar ..vs.. State of Bihar, reported in (2014) 8 SCC 273 and the judgments of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and various High Courts, relying upon the judgment in the case of Arnesh Kumar (supra).

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It is further argued that the offence is registered under BNS as well as under I.T.Act, whereas, simultaneously under the provisions of both the Acts the offence cannot be registered. It is submitted that the Investigating Agency shall decide whether they want to go with the offence under the BNS or I.T. Act. He, therefore, submits that the arrest is illegal.

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On merit, Shri Jha, learned counsel for the applicant argues that there is no material to show that a single call was made from the Call Centre and the applicant i.e. Artiya Global Services Pvt. Ltd. relating to the alleged offence. He further submits that there is nothing to show the complicity of the applicant in the alleged offence. He, thus, submits that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the alleged offence.

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The learned counsel for the respondent-CBI, on the other hand, strongly opposed the application. He pointed out the compliance of Section 35 of the BNSS and further pointed out the incriminating material against the applicant from the documents collected during the investigation.

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He has further pointed out that the investigation is still going on. He, therefore, submits that considering the seriousness of the offence and the material collected by the Investigating Agency, as regards the involvement of the applicant in the alleged offence, this Court may not grant bail.

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In the above referred backdrop, having gone through the chargesheet and the relevant material collected by the I.O. during the investigation, it is evident that during the searches carried out by CBI on the strength of 96 of BNSS and 185(1) of BNSS, voluminous documents, electronic records in the form of mobile phones, hard discs, laptops etc. and property documents, heavy cash was seized by CBI as per the search list enclosed against each premises searched by the CBI team.

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It is further evident that the allegation in brief are that the applicant-Divyangbhai Raval, Director of M/s Atriya Global Services Pvt.Ltd. and Vikas Kumar Tarachand Nimar, Director of M/s V. C. Informetrix Pvt. Ltd., in criminal conspiracy with each other and with other accused persons and others have been operating illegal call centers in the name and style of M/s. Atriya Global Services Pvt. Ltd, M/s. V.C. Informetrix Pvt. Ltd. and M/s.Viajes Solutions at Ahmedabad, Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Pune since June, 2024. The accused persons are allegedly engaged in a large scale transnational technology enabled financial crime network.

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The case diary shows that the accused persons have been operating under pseudonymous identities and by impersonation from the aforesaid illegal call centers and have been targeting foreign nationals especially from the United States of America online, under the guise of providing them tech support services. The accused persons while targeting to deliberately cheat the

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foreign victims by falsely informing them that their computer systems have been hacked or their identities have been stolen or illegal transactions have been made in their bank accounts or multiple suspicious orders have been placed in their names via Amazon or they were under surveillance of law enforcement agencies and thereby induced them to wire transfer the funds from their bank accounts in the bank accounts shared to them by the accused persons or purchase international gift cards and share the codes of the same or withdraw funds from their bank accounts and deposit the same at Crypto ATMs in the Crypto wallets shared to them by the accused persons, under the guise of protecting/safeguarding the funds available in their bank accounts thereby causing extensive wrongful financial losses to victims and wrongful financial gains to themselves.

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It appears from the record that on 28/07/2024 the accused persons targeted one US victim Mr.John online, falsely informing him that criminal investigation had been initiated against him and that Internal Revenue Service of US Treasury had already been informed about the suspicious transactions in his bank account and they induced the victim to transfer USD 20,000 from his bank account in the account provided to him by the accused persons for securing his innocence.

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It appears from the record that accused persons targeted another US victim on 11/07/2024 and induced the victim to transfer an amount of USD 20,000 and thereby defrauded the said victim. It

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is revealed that on 23/07/2024, the accused persons targeted another US victim online and induced the victim to deposit Crypto currency (BTC) worth USD 15,000 in the Crypto Wallet maintained in the name of the accused persons.

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It appears from the record that during search conducted at the premises of M/s Atriya Global Services Pvt. Ltd., Plot No. C2, Hill No. 2, Non-SCZ IT Park. Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh on 26-27/09/2024, an illegal call center in the name & style of M/s Atriya Global Services Pvt. Ltd being run by 62 accused persons was busted. During the course of search at the premises of M/s Atriya Global Services Pvt. Ltd., digital devices viz. 121 computer hard disks & 68 mobile phones containing incriminating digital evidence and incriminating documents were recovered, which prima facie, disclosed the active involvement of the accused persons in the commission of alleged crime. It was found that the accused persons were targeting the foreign victims online and the details of the same were captured by the investigating agency at the spot itself with help of technical experts and the same were seized during investigation. The digital evidence contained in the computer hard disks, mobile phones etc. recovered during the searches disclosed the modus operandi used by the accused persons to target the victims, inducement at the hand of the accused persons and thereafter fraudulently inducing the victims to transfer the money via gift cards to the accused persons.

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The investigation conducted so far has revealed that the applicant/accused persons in conspiracy with other accused persons are found to be actively involved in a transnational Cyber enabled financial crimes targeting large number of foreign victims. The other accused persons found involved in the commission of the crime are still at large and their present whereabouts are being ascertained. The investigation has revealed that there are multiple co-accused who were operating the network globally. Efforts are being made to identify all the accused persons and to locate the proceeds of crime.

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Thus, there is sufficient material to prima-facie show the complicity of the applicant in the alleged offence.

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As far as compliance of Section 35 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (‘BNSS’) is concerned, there is no dispute about the law laid down in the case of Arnesh Kumar (supra) and subsequently followed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and the High Courts, as pointed out by the learned counsel for the applicant by citing various authorities. However, the respondent CBI has satisfactorily established that there is a compliance of Section 35 of BNSS in this case. It is pointed out that before the learned Magistrate, the respondent-CBI has given the reasons as regards satisfaction to effect the arrest of the accused. Further the grounds and reasons of arrest were also disclosed in writing before the learned Magistrate to comply with

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the requirement for arrest. Thus, it cannot be said that there is no compliance of Section 35 of the BNSS.

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In the circumstances, the procedure which has been followed by the respondent-CBI before arrest was as per the judgment of Arnesh Kumar (supra) and the judgments relied upon by the applicant and therefore, the authorities cited by the learned counsel for the applicant are of no help and assistance to the applicant in the present matter.

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Accordingly, the application is rejected .

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The Criminal Bail Application is disposed of accordingly.

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(ANIL S. KILOR, J)

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Divyangbhai Kamleshbhai Raval v. the State of Maharashtra and Anr.

Case brief

What is this about?

What the court decided

Divyangbhai Kamleshbhai Raval v. the State of Maharashtra and Anr.

Case brief

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