Delhi HC refuses anticipatory bail to man involved in cheating using name of Union Home Minister

New Delhi [India], January 9 : The Delhi High Court refused to grant an anticipatory bail to an accused allegedly involved in a case registered by the Special Cell of Delhi Police based on a complaint that the accused alongwith others were cheating people by using the name of Union Home Minister.
According to the complainant, Prawal Chaudhary had met Brijesh Ratan through the accused along with one Rahul Shah. It was alleged in the complaint that Brijesh Ratan represented himself as a business partner of Jai Shah, son of the Union Home Minister. Brijesh Ratan claimed that his father has a business association with Union Home Minister.
It is further alleged that Brijesh Ratan committed cheating by taking a sum of Rs 2 crore in lieu of arranging a meeting with the Union Home Minister to get some work done.
In an order passed last week, the Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted the gravity of the offence was that the names of such constitutional authority and his family had been used to cheat the complainant. Considering the overall facts and circumstances of the case, no ground is made out for grant of anticipatory bail to the accused/applicant.
The court while passing the order noted that the attention of this Court had been drawn to the fact that the investigation, in this case, is at the initial stage. Evidence is being collected. The accused/applicant, Brijesh Ratan and Rahul Shah had given different versions of how the offence was committed and therefore they need to be confronted with each other and with the complainant. The specific role of each accused in the entire conspiracy needs to be unearthed.
Moreover, this Court also noted that accused persons have used the name of the Union Home Minister for inducing the complainant to part with a huge amount of money, knowing fully well that the assurance he was given was false. Since it had dawned on the complainant that there was no connection between the accused/applicant and the Union Home Minister or his family with the accused Brijesh Ratan or his father that he had started demanding back the money and had realized that he had been cheated in the name of constitutional authority.
Moreover, as per Status Report, the complainant has provided WhatsApp messages, screenshots and audio files regarding his communication with the accused/applicant, Rahul Shah and Parvesh Ratan.
The investigation also revealed that WhatsApp messages with Rahul Shah and the accused/applicant from April 2022 onwards contained voice recordings with Pravesh Ratan which suggests that transactions have taken place and the complainant is repeatedly asking them to return his money.
The Status report also revealed that when the complainant visited the office of Brijesh Ratan on March 28, 2022, Brijesh Ratan had asked the complainant for token money which had been brought in two cartons which were kept in the office of Brijesh Ratan and after the complainant had left the office, Brijesh Ratan had told the applicant/accused to count the cash and
transferred into other bags.
The status report reveals that during the investigation it has been revealed that the applicant/accused has counted the cash of Rs 2 crore and had transferred the cash from cartons to bag.
It is, therefore, clear from the entire investigation carried out till date that the accused/applicant was part of the offence in question and it was he who had been present during the meeting wherein the co-accused had induced the complainant to make payment of Rs 2 crore on false assurance and by misguiding and misleading him regarding his father's post and his connections with the constitutional authority mentioned in the preceding paragraph, noted the court.