Delhi Court sends 4 accused in CBI custody in USD 15 million cheating case

New Delhi [India], August 2 : The Rouse Avenue court on Thursday remanded Shubham Jain, Ambuj Mathur Shailender Kumar Gautam in four days and Abhishek Bisht in two days CBI custody.
They have been arrested in the transnational cyber fraud case for allegedly defrauding US citizens worth 15 million dollars.
Earlier, they were remanded to judicial custody. CBI moved an application seeking 5 days remand for the accused persons.
Two other accused, Dhairya and Dhruv Khattar, are in CBI custody till August 3.
Judicial Magistrate (First class) Nishant Garg remanded the accused persons in CBI custody.
"Considering the submissions of the investingating officer (IO) and the investigation carried out so far, I am of the view that there is a necessity of custodial interrogation of the accused persons Abhishek Bisht, Ambuj Mathur, Shubham Jain and Shailendra Kumar Gautam, for the purpose of assisting the investigation in ascertaining the other details of the crime, involvement and whereabouts of other accused persons and flow and recovery of the proceeds of the crime," the Judicial Magistrate Garg said.
For this purpose, 4 days police custody will suffice. So far, accused Abhishek Bisht is
concerned, the IO submits that his police custody can be restricted to a minimum of 2 days, the magistrate noted in the order.
"Accordingly, accused Ambuj Mathur, Shubham Jain and Shailendra Kumar Gautam are remanded to police custody for 4 days. They are produced on Aug 5, 2024. Considering the medical condition of accused Abhishek Bisht, he is remanded to police custody for 2 days. He will be produced on Aug 3, 2024," the court ordered on August 1.
"Needless to say, the IO shall ensure that requisite medicines as per prescription are made available to accused Shubham Jain and Abhishek Bisht and that every care be taken to ensure their well-being. If need be, they will be taken to a government hospital in case of medical exigency," the court directed.
Two other accused, namely Dhruv and Dhairya Khattar, are also in CBI custody till August 3.
CBI had sought five days of police custody remand of all four persons.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Saurabh Singh for CBI submitted that during searches
conducted at the residential premises of the accused persons on July 30, 2024. The cash amount of Rs 17.99 lakh and other incriminating material were recovered from the premises of the accused, Shailendra Kumar Gautam.
The CBI submitted that incriminating material was also recovered from the premises of other accused persons.
It was further submitted that the investigation conducted so far reveals that accused Shubham Jain, Abhishek Bisht, Ambuj Mahur and Shailendra Kumar Gautam played crucial roles in perpetrating the transnational cyber-enabled financial crime and have full and complete knowledge of the facts.
"Thus, to ascertain the involvement and whereabouts of other accused persons and to ascertain and recover the proceeds of crime, custodial interrogation of the accused persons is necessary, hence, they should be remanded to police custody for 5 days," the CBI said.
Advocate Vikhyat Oberoi appeared for Abhishek Bisht and submitted that he has some serious health issues.
"He is unable to sit and stays standing most of the time. It is submitted that in the event that accused Abhishek Bishta is remanded to police custody, he first should be examined at a government hospital to ascertain if he is fit to be remanded in police custody," the counsel said.
Counsel for accused Shailendra Kumar Gautam submitted that the IO has not been able to connect the cash recovered from the residence of the accused with the offence in question and the application is extremely vague in nature.
The CBI had arrested 43 people including 4 women in this case on July 25 from Gurugram. It is alleged that US citizens were defrauded worth 15 Million US dollars.