In Anwarul Haque vs. The State of Bihar (2026), Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S. Chandurkar passed a 5-page long order dated September 22, 2026, wherein, it granted leave and allowed the appeal. It concluded:"10. We have gone through the same as well as the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the CBI. We find that case of the appellant is almost identical to that of the co-accused Mukesh Mahto who has been granted bail by the High Court. That being the position and considering the fact that appellant is in custody for almost 14 months now, we are inclined to grant bail to the appellant. 11. Consequently, we set aside the impugned order of the High Court dated 25.03.2026 and direct that the appellant shall be produced before the Trial Court within a maximum period of 7 days from today whereafter he shall be enlarged on bail on such terms and conditions as may be deemed appropriate."
The appellant was aggrieved by the order dated March 25, 2026, passed by Justice Sandeep Kumar of Patna High Court wherein, the regular bail application of the appellant was rejected. The appellant is an accused in Economic offences P.S. Case No.16 of 2025, registered before the Economic Offences Unit Police Station, Patna, under Sections 318(4), 319(2), 336(2), 336(3), 338, 340(2), 111, 61(2), 3(5), 42(1), 42(2), 43(3) and 42(6) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and Sections 66, 66(c), 66(d) and 72 of the IT Act. (now registered with the Central Bureau of Investigation, (CBI). The appellant was arrested on July 21, 2025 and since then he has been in custody. The allegation against the appellant is that he is involved in a large scale cyber fraud in connection with which a large number of fake sim cards have been recovered. The Court had issued notice on May 13, 2026. In the proceedings held on August 18, 2026, the Supreme Court had called upon the CBI to file an updated status report regarding the present status of the investigation. 9. Pursuant thereto, CBI has filed updated status report. It was in this backdrop that the High Court's order was set aside.
Earlier, in Anwarul Haque vs. The State of Bihar (2026), Justice Kumar of the High Court had passed a 2-page long order dated March 25, 2026, wherein, he concluded:"6. Considering the fact that the allegation levelled against the petitioner is of large scale cyber fraud and the fact that large number of fake sim cards have been recovered, I am not inclined to grant bail to the petitioner. 7. Accordingly, the application stands dismissed. 8. The Court below is directed to expedite the trial." The petitioner had approached the High Court seeking bail in connection with Economic Offences P.S. Case No. 16 of 2025 registered for the offence punishable under Sections 318(4), 319(2), 336(2), 336(3), 338, 340(2), 111, 61(2), 3(5), 42(1), 42(2), 43(3), 42(6) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 66, 66(c), 66(d) and 72 of the I.T. Act.
As per the prosecution case, a large scale sim box found was recovered in Vaishali Dstrict, Bihar in which several POS (Point of Sale) were activated and around 231 mobile numbers using fake documents were found. These sim cards were supplied to a sim box setup operating in Gopalganj and Siwan District. Between June 2025 and July 2025 these sim cards were used to generate more than 51,000 calls and international, VOIP calls were converted into local calls. The fraud enabled cyber crime such as phishing calls, fake refund, scams, credit card fraud and customers care scams targeting victims across Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and other states. The High Court's order recorded that the petitioner is in custody since July 21, 2025.
