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The Rouse Avenue court recently dismissed the bail plea of Lakshay Vij in a Money laundering case, in view of his alleged role in floating bank accounts in a fake identity.
Vij was arrested in July 2024. A Prosecution Complaint (PC) has been filed. This case is linked to alleged transnational cyber fraud. Special Judge Gaurav Rao dismissed the bail application after noting the submissions and facts of the case. The Court said, " As per the PC several hundreds of crores of rupees approximately Rs 500 crores were laundered/layered/ transferred in a span of around one year in dummy/fake accounts from the accounts, also in the name of dummy/fake entities, wherein the amounts received from defrauding Lisa Roth money was credited. "As is evident from the PC, statement of independent witnesses including Ashish Kumar and the WhatsApp chats/messages in the WhatsApp group "LV personal jai guruji" it was the applicant who played a major role in floating of bank accounts in the name of fake/dummy entities and also provided the account details for transferring the proceeds of crime, the amount received from sale of USDTs. Hence there is much more to the present matter than what meets the eyes," Special Judge Rao observed in the order dated November 18. While dismissing the bail application, the court rejected the arguments of delay in trial and long incarceration. The court said that as far as the arguments regarding delay are concerned, though the investigation against the co-accused is still ongoing, however, the investigation qua the applicant is already complete and that is why the PC against him has already been filed. The court pointed out that how much time the trial will take cannot be predicted but efforts shall be made for expeditious trial subject to the court's docket. The court observed, "Being in custody since July 22, the applicant cannot be said to have been in prolonged incarceration." "Moreover when the allegations against the applicant are borne in mind, the magnitude of the offence is considered, mere delay if any, cannot be allowed to outweigh or overcome the same so as to grant bail to the applicant," the court held. The court noted that apart from money laundering, as per the PC, Vij is running various betting platforms and also promoting betting platforms through Instagram influencers and ED, Delhi has received a letter from its Chattisgarh office about the involvement of the applicant in the Mahadev betting app case. The court said, "With such kind of allegations it cannot be said at this stage that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail." The court also said that the applicant indeed appears to be a flight risk. ED's apprehension that he may try to flee, and avoid trial cannot be completely negated considering the fact that the applicant has travelled to Dubai, entered India through Nepal/another country via road instead of taking a flight to Delhi and at that time LOC was opened by CBI. "As per the immigration record, he is still in Dubai. When the applicant has been using/has used the said channel to come to India it cannot be completely ruled out that he might adopt the same channel to abscond and thus frustrate the trial," the court observed. It observed, "Opening of LOC shall not serve any purpose once the applicant uses the said route to leave India. Also, it has already been discussed in the earlier bail order that the applicant may influence the witnesses and thus jeopardize the trial which is yet to start. One of the masterminds, Karan Chugh already absconding the situation may worsen if the applicant is enlarged on bail." The counsel for the accused submitted that since the rejection of the first bail application, the Directorate of Enforcement/Investigating Agency (ED) has filed the PC in the present matter on 19.09.2024 before this Court and therefore, in light of this material change in circumstance, the present application is being filed. It was also submitted that the applicant's first bail application was rejected by this court essentially on the ground that the investigation is at a nascent stage and subsequently, the ED filed its PC on September 19, 2024, meaning thereby that as per them the investigation against the applicant is complete and the present second bail application is, therefore, maintainable before this court owing to a material change of circumstance. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a reply to the bail application. It stated that the laptop of Lisa Roth was hacked, a number flashed on her screen and when she contacted the number displayed on her laptop screen, a person reported to be a Microsoft employee responded and suggested that her investment of USD 400,000 in Fidelity Investment account was not safe. He allegedly misguided Roth to transfer money from her Fidelity Investment Account to a more secure account and also suggested she contact Fidelity Investments on a given number. The ED said that when Lisa Roth called the given number, the caller gained unauthorized remote access to her computer and opened a cryptocurrency OKcoin Account in the name of Roth using her mobile number and email ID. He also advised her to transfer USD 400,000 to the said OKcoin Account. Lisa Roth then transferred the amount from Fidelity Investments to her bank account in First Statebank. Thereafter, she transferred USD 400,000 to her said OKcoin account, however, when she logged intoher OKcoin account after a few weeks, she found that her account was empty, ED stated. (ANI)
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