Guwahati, Nov 26 (PTI) The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday granted bail to five accused in different cases related to the multi-crore online trading scam in the state.
While one was given interim bail on health grounds, the four others were granted bail as the investigating agency CBI failed to file the chargesheet within the stipulated period.
The court granted default bail to Sapnanil Das, Abhijit Chanda, Bishal Phukan and Tapan Bora alias Tarkik Bora, while Jiten Deka was allowed bail on medical grounds.
Senior advocate Bijon Mahajan, who appeared for Das, told PTI that default bail was granted due to the failure of the prosecution to submit the chargesheet.
“Bail was given not on merit. But default bail was granted as the prosecution could not file the chargesheet within the stipulated period of 60 days. In all the cases registered against my client, 60 days is the maximum period for filing of chargesheet, but he has been in custody for over 80 days now,” Mahajan said.
Sources said the other three accused were also given default bail on similar grounds of the CBI not submitting the chargesheet on time.
The online trading scam in the state came to light during the last week of August when investors, who had put in huge amounts of money in 29-year-old Deepankar Barman’s company, complained that he had not paid them the due returns and his office has been closed since August 21.
The Assam cabinet in September decided to transfer 32 cases registered till then in connection with the online trading scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation, with the central agency taking over the probe the next month.
Several firms, promoted mostly by men and women in their twenties, allegedly raised hundreds of crores of rupees from people across the state on the promise that they would get huge returns by investing in the stock markets.
However, these firms started to fail to repay investors over the last few months.
Over 65 people have been arrested in connection with the scam so far and 14 Special Investigation Teams set up to investigate the cases registered across districts under the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019, besides the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Assamese actor, choreographer and social media influencer Sumi Borah and her photographer husband Tarkik Borah were among those arrested, with Sumi still in judicial custody.
Deepankar Barman was arrested by a team of Assam Police from Goa last month. PTI COR SSG SSG ACD
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