(Prayer: This Crl.p is filed u/s.438 (filed u/s.482 BNSS) of Cr.p.c praying to allow this petition and grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner in the event of his arrest in crime no.386/2025 registered by the north cen crime police station for the offence p/us/ 66(c), 66(d) of IT ACT and Sec.318(4) of BNSS, pending on the file of the 45th ACJM at Bengaluru.)

Oral Order:

1. Heard Sri.Vinay Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri.Nageshwarappa, learned High Court Government Pleader for respondent/State.

2. Present petition is filed under Section 482 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 with the following prayer:

                  “Wherefore, the petitioner most humbly prays that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to:

                  A. Allow this petition and grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner in the event of his arrest in Crime No.386/2025, registered by the North Cen Crime Police Station for the offence punishable under Sections 66(c), 66(d) of the Information of Technology Act and Section 318(4) of the BNSS, pending on the file of the 45th ACJM at Bengaluru.

                  B. Pass any other order deemed fit in the interest of justice.”

 3. Facts which are utmost necessary for disposal of the present petition are as under:

                  3.1. A complaint came to be lodged by Kemparaj Manjari son of Appanna with North CEN Crime Police Station, Bengaluru which was registered in Crime No.386/2025 on 27.05.2025 for the offence punishable under Sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information of Technology Act,2008 and Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

                  3.2. Gist of the complaint averments would reveal that complainant had an account in HDFC Bank and his family members used HDFC Bank account, ICICI Bank account and Canara Bank account.

                  3.3. He was using those accounts and at that juncture, some unknown persons contacted him with a offer for job and directed him to review and rate some hotels whereby for his time in reviving and rating the hotels, he would be given a job.

                  3.4. Further, complainant was requested to invest in crypto currency in the website called ‘m.wiodlakk.com’ by using the user-id as ‘Kemp28’. Believing the words of the said such persons, complainant invested sum of Rs.3,00,000/-. He was asked to withdraw the said amount.

                  3.5. When he tried to withdraw the said amount, complainant encountered difficulty and he received information that while withdrawing the amount, he has followed wrong steps and therefore, the account of complainant namely indicoin was freezed and to defreeze the said account, a sum of Rs.3,01,065/- was to be paid.

                  3.6. Complainant believing the words, in order to get the profit out of his account namely indicoin, paid the said amount of Rs.3,01,065/- but he was not able to withdraw the money on the ground that his credit ratio is less. He was also instructed to invest further sum of Rs.4,32,130/-.

                  3.7. Again complainant was trapped to said sum of Rs.4,32,130/- and tried to withdraw the amount in his account in indicoin and at that juncture, there was a demand for 30% commission amount for withdrawing the amount.

                  3.8. In this fashion, from all the accounts of himself and his family members, sum of Rs.17,99,228/- was transferred on to the accounts of the fraudsters and therefore, sought for action.

4. Police after registering the case, investigated the matter. During such investigation, found that present petitioner is recipient of sum of Rs.2,00,000/- from the account of Priyanka J. Hipparagi, Bhavana T. K., Rohan Dilip Dighore, Vidya Ashok Mulimani in a sum of Rs.50,000/- each which she transferred on two occasions to his friend namely Surendar Balmiki. Petitioner also transferred yet another sum of Rs.35,000/- to said Surendar Balmiki as could be seen from the statement of account furnished by the petitioner himself along with the petition.

5. He got the money credited to his account from the account of Anita Devi in a sum of Rs.20,000/- each which he immediately transferred on to Surendar Balmiki.

6. In other words, petitioner got credited to his account from six unknown people to the tune of Rs.2,40,000/- and he transferred the same in favour of Surendar Balmiki. Pertinently all these transactions have taken place on 14.05.2025 itself.

7. In other words, petitioner is the recipient of the fraud committed by the persons who operated indicoin, a fraud account whereunder people like the complainant and others have been cheated by the operators.

8. Police after thorough investigation, issued notice to the present petitioner calling upon him to appear before the investigation agency so as to find out/unearth the role played the present petitioner.

9. Petitioner instead of appearing before the jurisdictional police, approached the Sessions Court for grant of anticipatory bail in Crl.Misc.No.8412/2025.

10. Learned Sessions Judge on considering the objections of the prosecution, dismissed the application seeking grant of anticipatory bail.

11. Therefore, petitioner is before this Court, in this petition seeking grant of anticipatory bail.

12. Learned counsel for the petitioner reiterating the grounds urged in the petition would contend that petitioner is a student who hails from Jharkhand and he is pursuing his education in West Bengal and is no way connected with the complainant or any other persons who said to have cheated the complainant and on 14.05.2025, his account got credited in a sum of Rs.2,40,000/- from six different peoples and as per the advice of his friend, he has transferred said sum of Rs.2,49,500/- to a account of Surendar Balmiki and therefore, he is totally innocent of the alleged fraud and sought for allowing the anticipatory bail request.

13. He would further contend that petitioner is not having any criminal antecedents and he has been a scapegoat in the incident and therefore, he being the law abiding citizen is to be protected by the order of anticipatory bail.

14. He would also contend that he is prepared to cooperate with the investigation agency in all respects and therefore, sought for grant of bail.

15. Per contra, learned High Court Government Pleader for the respondent/State opposes the bail request by contending that petitioner had direct hand in the fraud and if he is a law abiding citizen as is contended by learned counsel for the petitioner, immediately he should have asked the banker to reverse the credit of Rs.2,40,000/- to the respective UPI accounts instead he has transferred the same in favour of Surendar Balmiki which shows that petitioner is part of conspiracy and therefore, sought for rejection of the anticipatory bail request.

16. Having heard the arguments of both sides, this Court perused the material on record meticulously.

17. On such perusal of the material on record, it is noticed that name of the petitioner is not found in the FIR. In fact, in the FIR itself, there is no mention as to who are the accused persons.

18. In a matter of this nature, merely non-mentioning the name of the accused would not make out a case for the petitioner that he is totally innocent of the offences alleged against him, ipso facto.

19. Fact remains that statement of account filed by the petitioner himself shows that he is the recipient of sum of Rs.2,40,000/- on 14.05.2025 from different persons through UPI.

20. Admittedly, those five persons from whose account amount has been credited to the petitioner is totally unknown to the petitioner and they are strangers.

21. If the petitioner is a law abiding citizen, without any criminal antecedents and if he is innocent student, he should have retransferred the amount to the concerned as the amount has been transferred to his account through UPI account with necessary details.

22. But petitioner failed to do so. On the contrary, petitioner has transferred sum of Rs.2,49,500/- to Surendar Balmiki. What is the connection between the petitioner and Surendar Balmiki and how many such transactions have taken place earlier to 14.05.2025 and later to 14.05.2025 are all the matters which are to be investigated by the police after taking the petitioner to the custody.

23. However, in order to maintain the harmonious balance between the right of the petitioner as is enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and need of the investigation agency for the custodial interrogation, if the petitioner is directed to join the investigation on a particular day and undergo limited period of custodial interrogation and thereafter, enlarged on bail, ends of justice would be met.

24. In fact, by directing the petitioner to join the investigation would also facilitate the investigation process in unearthing the fraud that has been played on the complainant and similarly placed persons.

25. Accordingly, without expressing further opinion on the merits of the matter, following:

                  ORDER

                  i. Petition is allowed.

                  ii. Petitioner is directed to join the investigation by appearing before the Investigation Officer positively on 27.04.2026 at 9.00 a.m.

                  iii. Petitioner shall be taken to the custody by the Investigation Officer and custodial interrogation should be completed on the same day before 7.00 p.m.

                  iv. Petitioner to cooperate with the investigation agency in all respects by furnishing the email id, password/pin of the mobile telephone and mobile telephone set, password of his bank account and such necessary details as is required by the investigation agency.

                  v. On completion of the custodial interrogation, petitioner shall be enlarged on bail on taking a bond in a sum of Rs.2,00,000/- with two sureties for the likesum to the satisfaction of the Investigation Officer of which one surety shall be a local surety taking note of the fact that petitioner is a resident of Jharkhand and he is pursing the education in West Bengal.

                  vi. Petitioner shall mark his attendance before the Investigation Officer every alternate Sunday between 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. till the final report is filed.