Sontu surrenders
| Date :17-Oct-2023 |
Staff Reporter
After evading arrest for almost three months, notorious on-line gaming fraudster Sontu alias Ananth Navratan Jain from Gondia, on Monday, surrendered before Judicial Magistrate (First Class). The court remanded him to five-day police custody. Sontu came to the court at around 11.30 am with his legal team and surrendered before the court. The Investigation Officer (IO) and Police Inspector Shubhangi Deshmukh and her team also moved to the court and the hearing took place in the evening. The police and government pleader argued for custody of the fraudster citing the entire fraud case before the court. Their arguments rested on the doctored link sent by Sontu, wherein the victim lost huge money. Sontu was using a manipulated website so that the player should not win and whenever he won the game a technical error would erupt. Sontu was one of the facilitators of Diamondexch.com and used to provide links after taking the amount. The government pleaders also told the court that various details are required to be collected from the accused to reach the originator of Diamondexch.com and uncover the entire fraud. In contrast, the counsel for Sontu tried to convince the court that the allegations are baseless. Finally, the court remanded Sontu to five-days police custody.
The countdown for the surrender of Sontu began when the Supreme Court rejected his pre-arrest bail application on October 9 and directed him to surrender within seven days. As a result, Sontu had on option left for him without surrender. Sontu, an accused of orchestrating an on-line gaming fraud and duping City businessman Vikrant Agrawal of Rs 58 crore, was hiding in Dubai from July 22. He later appeared before the police on September 8 when the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court granted him interim anticipatory bail with directions of attending concerned police stations on every alternate day. The High Court later rejected him pre-arrest bail application on September 26. Since then, Sontu again went into hiding in Rajasthan via Madhya Pradesh. Following the rejection of his application by the High Court, Sontu turned to the Supreme Court. On October 9, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Bombay High Court to deny him bail and issued a stern directive for him to surrender before the police within seven days.
The investigation into this on-line gaming fraud case was initiated when Agrawal filed a complaint alleging that he had been defrauded of a staggering Rs 58 crore by the gaming platform. The complainant asserted that the gaming results had been manipulated which resulted in substantial financial losses to him. Following the complaint, the police had raided Sontu’s residence in Gondia on July 22, seizing an astonishing Rs 17 crore in cash, 14 kg of gold, and 294 kg of silver, with a combined worth of Rs 27 crore. Subsequently, on August 2, authorities discovered an additional Rs 85 lakh in cash and gold valued at over Rs 4.5 crore stored in the bank lockers belonging to Sontu and his family members.