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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the CBI on a plea moved by Lakshay Vij, who is challenging his arrest by the agency. Vij has been arrested by the CBI in a transnational cryptocurrency cheating case.
Justice Anish Dayal issued notice to the CBI and listed the matter on November 14 for a hearing. Lakshay Vij has sought his release from custody. Advocate Prabhav Ralli appeared for the petitioner Lakshay Vij. He has moved a petition seeking an order declaring the arrest of the petitioner by the CBI on October 24, as illegal. He has also sought a direction for setting aside all proceedings including his remand to CBI Custody on October 24, and Judicial Custody on October 28. The Petitioner Lakshay Vij has also challenged the order of October 23, for issuance of production warrant by the Magistrate for his production for the purpose of investigation/interrogation and the order of October 24, whereby the magistrate had permitted the CBI to investigate Lakshay Vij in court premises pursuant to being produced from judicial custody in another case. On October 28, the Rouse Avenue court remanded Lakshay Vij to judicial custody after the CBI's interrogation. CBI arrested Vij in a cryptocurrency cheating case. Earlier he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The court had said that from the investigation carried out so far, it is seen that there exists a transnational racket of cyber criminals whereby vulnerable foreign nationals are defrauded by gaining unauthorized access to their computer systems and inducing them to transfer funds in cryptocurrency. "From the evidence gathered so far, the involvement of accused Lakshay Vij, in conspiracy with other accused persons, is prima facie clear," the court had observed. While seeking Judicial remand, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) for the CBI submitted that during police custody, accused Lakshay Vij was confronted with incriminating material recovered and seized from other accused persons. He disclosed his association with accused Prafful Gupta and Karan Chugh. It was also submitted that efforts were made to recover the mobile phone used by accused Lakshay Vij in the commission of the offence but it could not be recovered. The APP further submitted that the identity and whereabouts of other accused persons is yet to be ascertained. To prevent the accused from influencing the witnesses and tampering with the evidence, he is to be remanded to judicial custody. On the other hand, Advocates Prabhav Ralli along with Yuvraj Bansal and Vanya Gupta Counsel for the accused had submitted that since the initial arrest was not in accordance with law, all subsequent proceedings would also fall through. It was further submitted that since the accused Lakshay Vij is already in judicial custody in the ED case, there is no chance of his influencing the witnesses or tampering with the evidence. After hearing the submissions, the court said that the production, arrest and remand of the accused have not been challenged to date. No bail application on behalf of the accused in this case has been filed. (ANI)
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