Court rejects bail plea of man accused in over ₹2K crore cyber fraud
Court rejects bail plea of man accused in over ₹2K crore cyber fraud
New Delhi, A Delhi court has dismissed the bail plea of a man accused in a ₹2,000 crore cyber fraud case.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Partap Singh Laler was hearing the seventh bail plea of the accused, S K Masud Alam, against whom an FIR was registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell.
The case was lodged in August 2024 based on a compliant by the operator and license holder of the crypto platform WazirX that their Multi-Signature wallets were hacked by unknown cyber criminals, and around USD 234 million worth of crypto tokens were fraudulently siphoned off.
In an order dated October 8, the court said that the cyber fraud involved an "unprecedented huge amount" causing massive financial loss to the complainant company and lakhs of investors, and that the accused played a crucial and active role in the criminal conspiracy by facilitating the cyber criminals through opening and selling the crypto account.
"The accused was in contact with foreign-based cyber criminals, specifically M Hasan, through Telegram App, whose identity and location remain unestablished," the order said.
It said that given the accused's geographical location near the Bangladesh border and his connections with foreign cyber criminals, there was a strong and reasonable apprehension that if released on bail, he would abscond.
"There is a serious risk that the accused will commit similar offences, threaten or influence witnesses, and interfere with the ongoing investigation if released on bail," the court said.
It said that 13 months in custody did not entitle him for bail and that there was no change in circumstances since the dismissal of his earlier bail plea.
"The investigation into the other accused persons and the technical modus operandi is still ongoing," the court said, rejecting the bail.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
