Mumbai, July 17, 2026: Immediate reporting of the loss of account credentials and subsequent suspicious transactions from the said account helped a Nashik-based businessman secure bail from a sessions court in a digital arrest scam case.
The man was arrested for allegedly having received Rs 90 lakh in his company's account, which was said to be proceeds of crime earned through a digital arrest scam.
Nashik-based businessman Ankush More was arrested last year in connection with a digital arrest case lodged with the Cyber Police Station, West Division, Mumbai, on January 23, 2025, on the complaint of Madhu Bajaj.
The woman alleged that she was defrauded of Rs 8.60 crore during the period from December 12, 2024, to December 16, 2024, through a digital arrest scam.
Money Trail Under Scrutiny
The prosecution claimed that during the investigation, the money trail was followed and More's involvement was revealed. It was claimed that an amount of Rs 90 lakh out of the defrauded money was transferred to the bank account of More's company and was thereafter siphoned off to different bank accounts.
More's lawyers, Priyanka Dubey and Shirish Desai, contended that the applicant was in no way concerned with the amount received in the bank account of his firm, which was allegedly misused by absconding accused Abhishek Gite.
It was argued that More is the proprietor of M/s Sunfire Energy, M/s Miracle Enterprises and Sanctifies Technology. More alleged that in October-November 2024, he came in contact with Gite for business purposes.
The defence contended that Gite had requested More for his account details for business collaboration and assured him that the same would be immediately returned after the necessary formalities were completed.
However, More alleged that in the first week of December 2024, Gite informed him that the documents and bank account accessories had been lost by his clerk. More immediately approached his banker and the local police and lodged a complaint on December 9, 2024.
Further, when he came to know about unauthorised access to his bank account on December 17, 2024, he again immediately alerted his banker, ICICI Bank, and reported the incident to Gangapur Police Station, Nashik, where a formal case was lodged on December 21, 2024.
More claimed that the amount of Rs 90 lakh received in the bank account of his firm was immediately transferred on the same day to other unknown persons. He neither withdrew the said amount nor utilised it for any purpose.
Court Finds Defence Credible
The plea, however, was opposed by the prosecution, which contended that the applicant had handed over the bank documents and credentials of the said bank account to cybercriminals and received a commission for the same.
There are five complaints received on the National Cyber Crime Reporting (NCCR) portal in respect of the applicant's ICICI Bank account, the prosecution argued.
The court, however, said, “It is the applicant who had lodged the complaint with Gangapur Police Station regarding the loss of his bank account documents. In the said complaint itself, the applicant has informed police that on getting knowledge of the loss of the documents, he had blocked his debit card and informed the concerned bank about the same. Not only this, but the applicant himself had again lodged a report at Gangapur Police Station informing about the suspicious transactions taking place in his bank account.”
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“Both the reports are filed on record to substantiate the stand taken by the applicant. Thus, both these documents clearly demonstrate that prior to the lodging of the report by the informant, the applicant had approached the concerned bank and Gangapur Police Station informing them about the loss of documents and the transactions that took place in his bank account. This itself is sufficient to show that the stand taken by the applicant is prima facie believable,” the court said while granting bail to More.
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