Virendra v. State of Madhya Pradesh
In the High Court of Madhya Pradesh
Misc. Criminal Case 62468/2021
Before Justice Anil Verma
Decided on February 08, 2022

Relevancy of the Case: Bail application in a phishing scam where the perpetrator pretended to be an RBI representative

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 43, 66)
• The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Section 420, 467, 468, 471, 34)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The complainant received an email from a fake RBI email. This email stated that he could receive a gift of £15,000. The complainant received instructions to pay clearance charges to avail the same amount.
• Upon perusal of the following, the complainant paid a total of ₹65 lakhs in several instalments to the accused persons in different bank accounts.
• The accused, who had his initial bail application rejected, filed this second one. He has been in custody since March 19,2021.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The applicant’s counsel argued that he was an innocent person. He is not the main accused in the present case. Moreover, the police did not recover any money from him.
• The respondent’s counsel submitted the applicant has not justified granting Nigerian individuals access to his bank account and email account, nor has he clarified his relationship with a known Nigerian person.

Opinion of the Bench

• The applicant’s involvement in a fraud of approximately ₹65 Lacs, with no recovered amount, is alarming. Considering the increasing cases of cyber crimes and forgery, no case for a grant of bail is made out.

Final Decision

• The court rejected the bail application.

Sreekutty R, an undergraduate student at National Law University Odisha, prepared this case summary during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2023.