New Delhi, February 18 The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant anticipatory bail to a chartered accountant in a money laundering investigation linked to a ₹640 crore cyber fraud case.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Augustine George Masih upheld the order of the Delhi High Court, which had denied pre-arrest bail to Bhaskar Yadav and directed him to surrender within 10 days.
The high court on February 2 dismissed anticipatory bail applications by Yadav and Ashok Kumar Sharma.
In the 22-page judgment, the high court said there was an "intricate mesh of money laundering," and the need expressed by the Enforcement Directorate to interrogate the two accused in custody was not unreasonable.
"The accused/applicants, being skilled professionals, have allegedly crafted a complex scheme to launder proceeds of crime across multiple layers. To uncover this, I find substance in the submission of the counsel for the Enforcement Directorate (DoE) that custodial interrogation is highly necessary," the HC said.
"This is not merely a case of dealing in cryptocurrency, which is not a crime in this country, and the liability of the accused persons is limited to paying taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. The present cases exhibit a vast and intricate network of money movement, fraudulently extracted from the funds of unsuspecting investors, who primarily belong to the middle class," it added.
The high court stated that individual liberty is sacrosanct, but it cannot disregard the need for a meaningful interrogation and investigation in the larger interest of the country's economy.
It noted there were fresh complaints of the accused allegedly assaulting investigating officers, bribing local police to settle cyber fraud complaints, and destroying electronic evidence.
The money laundering investigation stems from two FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police, which were registered to probe charges of cyber fraud amounting to ₹640 crore generated through betting, gambling, part-time jobs, and phishing scams. The ED had earlier stated that these FIRs were registered to investigate cyber fraud amounting to ₹640 crore generated through betting, gambling, part-time jobs, and phishing scams.
According to the agency, the money of unsuspecting people was siphoned off by layering funds obtained through more than 5,000 mule Indian bank accounts and subsequently uploaded on PYYPL, a payment platform based in the UAE.
Part of the cyber fraud money was withdrawn in cash in Dubai through debit and credit cards issued by various Indian banks, it said.
According to the investigation agency, the alleged scam was being run through a network of certain chartered accountants, company secretaries, and cryptocurrency traders who worked together to launder the proceeds of crime.
