Mumbai Court Rejects Bail Pleas Of 2 Accused In Mule Account Cyber Fraud Case

Mumbai: The sessions court on Monday rejected the bail plea of two accused booked for facilitating cyber fraudsters in opening mule accounts in different banks. The court said that they were caught red-handed in a raid.

Crime Branch raid

According to the prosecution, Unit 2 of the Crime Branch had raided premises at Padhy Chambers, Masjid Bundar, on July 3 and caught four persons, including the two accused, namely Vishal Maru, 22, and Govind Buchiya, 28.

It was claimed that the police had, during the raid, seized 42 mobile phones of different companies, 66 ATM cards of different banks, 122 cheque books of different banks, 15 passbooks of different banks, pen drives, stamp pad, seals, welcome kit, stickers, agreements, account opening forms, 8 SIM cards of Airtel company, along with computers and hard disk. Further inquiry revealed that the accused were part of the group created by one Shabbir Shaikh and its administrator was Ranvir Kapoor, who is said to be residing in Dubai.

Shaikh allegedly used to activate the bank accounts and used to provide location. Thereafter, the accused used to open bank accounts at the same address of different companies. The applicants and other accused used to get Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 per account, which was utilised for cyber fraud and online gaming.

Accused seek bail

Maru and Buchiya, while seeking bail, claimed that they were just employees of Shaikh and worked as clerks. It was claimed that there is no evidence to show that they were linked to 122 such mule accounts. It was also argued that the arrest of the accused was illegal as they were not given prior notice.

The court, however, rejected their arguments and said that, "it appears that applicants with mens rea were intentionally involved in the crime and acquired wrongful gain. The investigation is at preliminary stage. If the applicants at this interim stage are released on bail, certainly there are chances of hampering and tampering with the evidence of the prosecution."

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Court rejects illegal arrest claim

On the ground of illegal arrest, the court said, "Applicants and co-accused were red-handed apprehended with the material of bogus bank accounts, SIM cards which is discussed above in detail. If the Investigating Officer was engaged into giving notice, certainly the evidence of the offence would have disappeared or been tampered with at the hands of applicants and co-accused."

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