IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Reserved on: 7^th May, 2025 Pronounced on: 12 t h May, 2025 Anas ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE MANISHA BATRA Present: Ms. Amarjeet Kaur, Advocate for Mr. Mohd. Salim, Advocate for the petitioner.

Ms. Pooja Nayar Sharma, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab.

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MANISHA BATRA, J :-

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 bearing FIR No. 16 dated 12.02.2024 registered under Sections 419, 420 and 120-B of IPC and Sections 66-C and 66-D of Information Technology Act, [(Sections 465, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC added later on)] at Police Station Model Town, District Ludhiana.

2. As per the prosecution case, the complainant Sanjeev Jain, who is owner of a hosiery factory at Ludhiana and hails from Jain community, had received a call on his mobile phone number on 07.02.2024. The caller introduced himself as Parkash Rasik Lal Dhariwal, who is head of a committee of their community. The said Parkash Rasik Lal Dhariwal was known to the complainant as he used to donate huge sums of money for development of Jain Community and Jain temples. The caller told the complainant that he had collected some money from Ludhiana for the purpose of donation and asked the complainant to help him for delivering that money to Delhi or Mumbai, wherein he had been residing. The complainant expressed his inability to do so but on insistence of the caller that his act would be for the purpose of their religion and for construction of temple and other religious activities, which would stop otherwise, the complainant agreed to do so.

3. As per the further allegations, on 08.02.2024, the complainant received a call from another cell phone number and the caller, while introducing him as Vivek Jain, nephew of Parkash Rasik Lal Dhariwal represented to the complainant that he was coming to his place at Ludhiana with cash amount of Rs. 2,00,000,00/- and also induced the complainant to give an amount of Rs. 50,00,000/- in cash at Delhi. On being so induced, the complainant through his acquaintance at Delhi, was made to part with a sum of Rs. 50,00,000/- to two persons who had come to collect the same and whose names were told as Kishore Lunkar and Parmod Mehta by the caller. However, neither the abovesaid Vivek Jain nor any other person came to give back the money of the complainant and their phones were also switched off by the callers subsequently. Having realized that he had been cheated, the complainant reported the matter to the police.

4. After registration of FIR, investigation proceedings were initiated. During investigation, the tower locations of the cell phone numbers from which calls were received by the complainant were obtained and they were found to be from Delhi. CCTV footage of the locations had also been taken and two youths were found taking a bag of currency notes given by the complainant in the CCTV camera. They were later on identified as petitioner-Anas and co-accused Mohd Anas Safi. They were arrested on 17.02.2024. The petitioner disclosed that he had been called by the co- accused Amir and Mohit and had collected bag of containing currency notes from a person. The petitioner also got recovered an amount of Rs. 50,000/-

out of the cheated amount.

5. It is argued by learned counsel for the petitioner that he has been falsely implicated in this case. He is in custody since 17.02.2024. He was not named in the FIR. He is not beneficiary to the transaction of money. It is not the allegation against him that he had made any phone call to the complainant or had asked the complainant to handover money to him. The disclosure statements of the co-accused are not admissible in evidence against him. No recovery has been effected from him. The co-accused Mohd. Anas Safi and Amir, whose case on similar have since been extended benefit of b