Court denies bail to Lakshay Vij in money laundering case

This case is linked to a US Dollars 4 lakh fraud involving a US citizen and its laundering through different bank accounts of bogus entities.

Special judge Gaurav Rao dismissed the bail application of Lakshay Vij and said that the investigation is at a nascent stage.

"Considering all these facts and circumstances, the nature of allegations, the fact that the investigation is at nascent stage and when the appreciation of Complaint that the applicant/accused who is one of the mastermind and main conspirator, if released on bail may try to influence the witnesses and may tamper with the evidence thereby jeopardising the entire investigation and trial cannot be completely ruled out more so considering the complainant's case that one Arpan Gupta who is a friend of the applicant had broken his phone at the time of raid so as to avoid the seizure of incriminating/ digital evidence, I am not inclined to enlarge the applicant/accused on bail at this stage," Special judge Gaurav Rao said in the order.

Special public prosecutors (SPPs ) Manish Jain and Simon Benjamin along with Snehal Sharda appeared for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and opposed the bail application.

ED filed a reply opposing the bail application. It submitted that during investigation it was found that proceeds from sale of Bitcoins defrauded from Lisa Roth, a US citizen and transferred to cryptocurrency wallet of Praful Gupta and Sarita Gupta have been credited into the bank account of various entities from June 12 to 15 June 2022.

On July 23, the accused was remanded to five days of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Custody by the court. He was arrested on July 22.

"Considering the nature of allegations and detailed submissions made in the application as well as other material shown at the time of submission seeking remand which includes the statement of Praful Gupta according to which the money was laundered as per instruction of Lakshay Vij as well as extract of WhatsApp/messages and to unearth the money trail, ascertain the role of others involved accused Lakshay Vij is remanded to the ED custody till July 28," the court had said in the order.

Thereafter, the court declined to grant further remand and the accused was remanded to judicial custody. The same is under challenge before the High Court.

As per the ED, its case is based on a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Prafull Gupta and others for allegedly committing criminal conspiracy and cheating a US citizen.

It is alleged that the victim's laptop was hacked and a number flashed on the screen. When she contacted the number, a person impersonating himself as a Microsoft employee responded and suggested that her US Dollars 4 lakh dollar investment in a company is not safe. He misguided her to transfer her money to a more secure account. He also gave her another number to contact the company.

When she contacted the given number, the caller gained remote access of her computer and opened a cryptocurrency account in her name using her email and mobile number. He also advised her to transfer US Dollars 4 lakh to that account.

She transferred the amount to her bank account and thereafter she transferred US Dollars 4 lakh to a cryptocurrency account. When she logged into her account after a few weeks she found the account empty.

The defrauded amount was converted into cryptocurrency and was further transferred to other accused persons in their Binance and FTX wallet addresses.

The victim, Lisa Roth, filed a complaint, and the information was provided to Indian authorities.

The CBI registered an FIR against accused Prafful Gupta, Sarita Gupta and other accused persons for allegedly committing the offence of cheating. (ANI)