IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA

AT CHANDIGARH

Sandeep ... Petitioner

Vs.

State of Haryana ... Respondent

1. The date when the judgment is reserved 01.12.2025 2. The date when the judgment is pronounced 17.12.2025 3. The date when the judgment is uploaded on the 17.12.2025

website

4. Whether only operative part of the judgment is Full

pronounced or whether the full judgment is

pronounced

5. The delay, if any, of the pronouncement of full Not applicable

judgment, and reasons thereof

CORAM: HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE MANISHA BATRA Present: Mr. Mayank Aggarwal, Advocate for the petitioner.

Ms. Himani Arora, DAG, Haryana.

Mr. Jagdish Manchanda, Sr. Advocate with

Mr. Nischal Chetanya Manchanda, Advocate,

Mr. Dinesh Chaudhary, Advocate and

Er. Vikram Singh, Advocate for the complainant.

...

MANISHA BATRA, J (ORAL)

The present petition has been filed under Section 483 of the

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNSS’) by the petitioner seeking grant of regular bail in case arising out of FIR No.38

dated 31.01.2025, registered under Sections 308(2), 318(4), 319, 336(3), 338, 340 of the BNS (Sections 61(2), 3(5), 241 of the BNS and Sections 66C, 66D of the Information Technology Act were added later on), at Police Station Cyber Crime, West Gurugram, District Gurugram.

2. The aforementioned FIR was registered on the basis of complaint lodged by complainant Dr. Anita, a retired Principal alleging that on the evening of 03.01.2025, she had received a call on her cell phone. The caller told her that several complaints were registered against her for violation of illegal advertisements and sending harassing messages and an FIR was registered against her. She was also informed that three cell phone numbers, which she was using, would be blocked within short time. She also started receiving video calls from different numbers on her whatsApp and the callers told her that a bank account had been opened by her in favour of a person, who was accused of money laundering and committing frauds and she would be sent to jail for 14 years. She was forbidden from disclosing these facts to her family members under the threat that they would also be put to jail and their bank accounts would be frozen and that they would be mentally and physically tortured. She was forced to transfer a total amount of Rs.3,03,00,000/- from her bank accounts to different bank accounts, the numbers of which were disclosed by the callers. She was kept under virtual digital arrest till the transfer of the abovesaid amount and was not even made to leave her room. She was made scared of her life. Last video call was made to her on 31.01.2025, whereby threats were again extended to her.

3. During investigation, the details of the beneficiary bank accounts were obtained and it was revealed that an amount of Rs.63 lakhs from the bank account of the complainant was transferred in an account bearing No.20100031773920 at Bandhan Bank on 10.01.2025. The said account was found to be operating in the name of M/s Shiv Trading Company under the proprietorship of accused Ram Gopal Singh. The said accused was arrested on 01.02.2025. On his identification, co-accused, Mukesh Ashok @ Pankaj was also arrested on the same day. As per the further allegations, accused Dodiya Bhawin, who was also found to be operating an account wherein an amount of Rs.24,57,963/- from the account of the complainant was transferred, was nominated and arrested. The investigation further revealed that the amount of Rs.3,04,500/- was transferred to the bank account operating in the name of the present petitioner. The petitioner was already in custody in another case. He was joined into the investigation of this case as on 18.02.2025 and was formally arrested. He suffered disclosure statement to the effect that he had got deposited the aforementioned amount of money on asking of his friends, namely, Nikku and Shrikant, who too were nominated as accused. Offences under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act