Supreme Court sets aside regular bail denial order of Patna High Court in a cyber crime case of fake document based 231 mobile numbers from Rampur Chandraman, Mahuwa, Vaishali

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.

Supreme Court issues notice against Justice Sandeep Kumar's denial of bail in an Examination Scam Case

Upon hearing the special leave to appeal in Aditya Kumar @ Anshu vs. The State of Bihar Through Economic Offences Wong (2025), Supreme Court's Division Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih issued notice, returnable on December 8, 2025. Its 2-page long order dated October 3, 2025 reads:'' 2. Respondent-State of Bihar may file its counter affidavit at least 48 hours prior to the returnable date. Such affidavit ought to include, inter alia, the 1following: (i) Particulars of chargesheet, if filed; (ii) Number of witnesses proposed to be examined by the prosecution;(iii) Whether charge has been framed or not; (iv) If the charge has not been framed/the trial has not commenced, as the case may be, the reason therefor; (v) If the trial has commenced, the number of witnesses examined and; (vi) Any other information relevant for a decision on the special leave petition.'' 

Upon hearing in Aditya Kumar @ Anshu vs. The State of Bihar Through Economic Offences Wong (2025), Justice Sandeep Kumar of Patna High Court had passed a 7-page long order dated August 6, 2025, wherein, he was "not inclined to grant the petitioner privilege of regular bail." 

The petitioner had approached the High Court seeking bail in connection with an Economic Offence P.S. case of 2024 registered for the offence under sections 318(4), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2) read with section 3(5) of the B.N.S., 2023, under sections 66, 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and under sections 3 and 10 of the Bihar Public Examination Act, 2024.

According to the prosecution case, the informant namely, Kumar Veer Dhirendra, had submitted a written report to the officer-In-charge of the Economic Offence Police Station, Patna stating therein that pursuant to the advertisement of the Bihar State Health Society, for the recruitment of 4,500 Community Health Officers, a computer based test was scheduled for December 1, 2024 and December 2, 2024. On November 30, 2024, the Economic Offence Unit, received confidential information that some malpractice is being done in the examination and thereafter, a team was constituted under the leadership of the D.I.G., EOU, Bihar for verifying the said information. While collecting intelligence, it was found that a cheating racket infiltrated the examination system and the owner of the examination centre, Superintendents, IT Managers, IT support staffs, invigilators, and employees of ‘We Shine Tech’, the company which was conducting the examination, were actively involved in facilitating this fraud. Thereafter, on December 1, 2024 the EOU team raided Ekam Evolutions Private Limited Examination Centre, Ashopur and it was found that a proxy server was installed, enabling unauthorized remote access to the examination computers. The centre owner and IT Manager namely, Amit Kumar and Adarsh Raj were present there. Realizing the situation, the officials of the E.O.U. secured the said place and proceeded to inspect other Examination Centres. Upon reaching at Wire Online Exam Centre, R.K. Puram, they found that even there the proxy server had been illegally connected to the network, enabling unauthorized remote access. Upon questioning, the Superintendent of the aforesaid Examination Centre namely, Ravi Bhushan failed to give any satisfactory reply regarding these irregularities. Thereafter, the team proceeded to ACME Institute of Information Technology, located on Ghordoud Road, Patna and after a technical inspection it was found that there was an unauthorized additional lease line and some articles were also recovered which indicated towards the fraudulent activities taking place there. When the suspected persons including the petitioner, who was deputed as an Examination Coordinator, did not disclose any detail regarding the scam, a search was conducted at all Examination Centres and the seized articles were sent for forensic examination. 

Thereafter, another round of questioning was done at the centres and search was also conducted through videography and some articles were seized and four persons were apprehended. Thereafter, the team inspected and raided several Examination Centres and also found irregularities and seized the incriminating articles and detained the suspects. After an intense interrogation, the apprehended persons, confessed to their involvement in the said crime during the examination of the Community Health Officer and they further gave their modus operandi that they had installed an unauthorized lease line at the Examination Centres, allowing them to remotely access the systems using software such as ‘Ammyy Admin’. During the confession, the apprehended persons also disclosed that 12 Examination Centres across Patna were compromised in this manner. 

On the basis of the above written report, the Police drew up a formal first information report and registered a case being Economic Offence Unit Patna P.S.Case No.28 of 2024 dated December 2, 2024.

Justice Kumar observed:''....it appears that the petitioner is involved in the examination scam. The petitioner is the room partner of co-accused Ashish Ranjan, I.T. Manager at Wire Online Examination Centre, R.K. Puram, Patna, who has stated that the petitioner is also involved in the examination scam. Thereafter, the flat of said Ashish Ranjan and present petitoiner was searched, from where A.T.M. cards, mobile phones, cheque books, Aadhar Cards and other documents were recovered. During investigation, it has come that the petitioner had got the Ammyy Admin Application installed in the computers of the examination centre through co-accused Ashish Ranjan.''