Written by Jagpreet Singh SandhuChandigarh | November 19, 2025 12:23 AM IST 4 min readThe court on hearing the matter and after going by the evidence found that neither the three accused ever contacted complainant and did not make any fraud call to her.In a first by a trial court in Chandigarh, three persons from Rajasthan were convicted in a digital arrest scam — not for making fraudulent calls, but for receiving the cheated money in their bank accounts.The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMIC) Court of Sher Singh held Mahendra Nai, Poonam Chand and Sandeep Kumar guilty under Section 317(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), marking the first conviction of its kind as such cyberfraud cases surged across the country in the last one year.The convicts were sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment of one year and two months, however, since the accused have already undergone the period of sentence, the court said that convicts be released from custody.The FIR in the matter was registered on the complaint of Pratipal Kaur with the submissions that on July 1, 2024, she received a telephonic call on her mobile and the caller stated that he is from Crime Branch Mumbai and a mobile number was issued against the Aadhaar Card of the complainant which was being used by founder of Jet Airways Naresh Goel. The caller said that there were 24 complaints of money laundering from the number. The matter is in Supreme Court and she will be arrested soon for the crime, according to the complainant.The fraudster said that an enquiry against her was being initiated and was asked to deposit Rs 80 lakh in a secret account of surveillance and if found innocent, then the amount would be refunded to her. During this time, two women and one lady talked to her and they directed her to upload the Skype app.They sent her the copy of the order regarding the action being taken against Goyal for illegal cases. The cybercriminals told her that they were watching her through Skype and giving directions to keep herself alone in a separate room without sharing any information to anybody. On July 2, 2024, they gave her directions to go to the bank and transfer the money to a bank account. The complainant after getting encashed all her fixed deposits from different accounts, deposited Rs 80,31,764.32 in the account shared by the fraudsters. After sending the amount through RTGS, she realised that it was a scam.During the probe, the cybercrime unit of Chandigarh Police found that the call to the complainant was made through a fraudulent/virtual number and lodged an FIR. The three accused were then arrested during a police raid. The police found that the trio received the money in their bank accounts on assurance by the other accused that 10 per cent amount would be given to them as commission.Story continues below this adDuring the trial, the defence counsel argued that the accused have been falsely implicated in the case.The court on hearing the matter and after going by the evidence found that neither the three accused ever contacted complainant and did not make any fraud call to her. “(The) complainant contended clearly that two men and one woman were watching through Skype video call and she did not identify the accused Sandeep, Mahendra and Poonam as those persons,” the court observed.From the evidence of investigating officer, the court found that Mahendra and Sandeep Kumar received the cheating amount in their account but since no ingredients of forgery, fraud and cheating have been proved against them. It also ruled out criminal conspiracy by Mahendra, Poonam and Sandeep.Acquitting from the charges of cheating by personation, criminal conspiracy and forgery of BNS, but finding that they received the cheating amount in their respective accounts and misappropriated the same despite having the knowledge that this amount received by them from the fraudsters account, they were held guilty under Section 317(2) (dishonestly receiving or retaining stolen property) of BNS. Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:chandigarh