The Supreme Court of India on Monday granted bail to Mohammad Kashif, a man accused of running an elaborate extortion and money-laundering racket by posing as a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union ministers.
A bench comprising Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh set aside a February 5 order by the Allahabad High Court, which had previously denied bail to the accused. Kashif, who has spent nearly three years in custody, was granted relief after he gave a formal undertaking to the court promising not to use the names of high constitutional functionaries.
The top court directed Kashif to cooperate fully with the ongoing trial. The bench made it clear that any failure to cooperate would give the Enforcement Directorate (ED) the liberty to seek the immediate cancellation of his bail.
The Enforcement Directorate’s case paints a picture of high-tech deception and influence peddling. According to the agency, Kashif systematically extorted money from individuals by promising to get their work cleared by various government departments.
To convince his targets, Kashif allegedly uploaded morphed and edited photographs on his Facebook and Instagram accounts, showing him standing alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Union ministers.
The federal agency also uncovered forged documents designed to cement his fake status. Among the seized materials were a fabricated invitation card in his name for the Prime Minister’s high-profile oath-taking ceremony on May 30, 2019, and another forged invitation for an exclusive lunch with the Prime Minister on February 20, 2019.
Using this fabricated proximity to power, Kashif allegedly succeeded in securing lucrative government contracts, including projects from the Government of Rajasthan and several other state departments.
Kashif’s alleged run ended when Noida police intercepted him while he was traveling in a Mercedes-Benz. Officers recovered three mobile phones from his possession, which later provided the crucial digital evidence of his forged social media posts.
The financial scale of the operation became clearer when the ED recovered over Rs 1.10 crore during search operations at premises linked to Kashif. The agency has argued that this entire sum constitutes the “proceeds of crime” generated from his extortion activities.
The investigation into Kashif actually began through surveillance channels monitoring national security threats, which flagged suspicious activities surrounding him over a two-year period. Following these inputs, a forgery and cheating case was lodged at the Gautam Budh Nagar police station in Uttar Pradesh. Building on this local police case, the ED officially registered its money-laundering probe on April 19, 2023.
In his defense, Kashif argued that he had already been granted bail in the underlying predicate offense and had been in continuous custody since May 25, 2023. Pointing to the significant delays in bringing the case to trial, his counsel successfully argued for his release before the Supreme Court on Monday.
