The Delhi High Court has denied bail to a Nigerian national allegedly involved in an international cyber fraud syndicate that targeted individuals through matrimonial websites and social media platforms by impersonating fake profiles.
Justice Shalinder Kaur, while dismissing the bail plea of accused Paul Onyeji Atuh, observed that the alleged offences revealed an โinternational and organised character of the syndicateโ and a โtechnically sophisticated modus operandi,โ making it inappropriate for the court to grant bail.
Atuh, who arrived in India on a student visa in 2020, was arrested in May 2022 from Greater Noida following a complaint lodged by a woman who claimed she was duped on the matrimonial website Sangam.com. The complainant said she was contacted by a man posing as โDr. Ankit Verma,โ purportedly a Canada-based doctor, who claimed to have been detained at Delhi Airport by customs officials for carrying excess foreign currency.
The woman was allegedly coerced into transferring โน55,900 as a customs penalty after receiving a follow-up call from someone posing as a customs officer. A further demand of โน1.5 lakh for โMinistry of Finance clearanceโ raised her suspicion, prompting her to approach the police.
The cyber cell investigation uncovered that Atuh and two co-accused were operating a structured racket using 26 bank accounts, 15 mobile phones, 20 SIM cards, two laptops, and four dongle devices. Authorities seized โน1.95 lakh in cash and froze approximately โน4 lakh in various accounts linked to the fraud.
The police identified at least 17 victims, with cumulative losses amounting to โน33.73 lakh.
The court cited WhatsApp conversations recovered from Atuhโs phone that linked him directly to the bank account where the defrauded amount was deposited. The judge also rejected the defence argument that Atuh was being framed, noting the absence of any mitigating circumstances and the continued custodial necessity in view of multiple FIRs and victims.
“The nature and scope of the operation… demonstrates that this was not an isolated or impulsive act of deceit, but a meticulously executed plan involving the use of fake profiles and digital morphing tools such as the ‘Ding Tone App’,” the court said in its July 11 order.
The accused has been in custody for over three years. However, the court concluded that the gravity of the offence, the scale of the fraud, and the structured operation of the syndicate outweighed arguments for bail.
