Kolkata: Industrialist Pawan Ruia, arrested on Tuesday by the Cyber Crime Wing (CCW) from New Town, was remanded to seven days’ police custody on Wednesday after being produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s (ACJM) Court, Bidhannagar.
The arrest followed the Calcutta High Court vacating the interim protection earlier granted to him and his family in the Rs 317 crore cyber fraud case.
During the hearing, the defence questioned the sections under which the case was registered at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station, citing the absence of provisions under the Information Technology Act, and argued that Ruia’s name did not figure in the chargesheet. Opposing the plea, Special Public Prosecutor Rajdeep Banerjee submitted that there is no mandatory requirement for cases registered at a cyber crime police station to include provisions of the IT Act. He said statements recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC showed that directors of two shell companies—employees of Ruia—claimed they were unaware of firms being opened in their names.
The prosecution also cited Internet Protocol logs linked to Ruia Centre, allegedly used for receiving and siphoning off funds.
After hearing both sides, ACJM Abhijeet Pakhrin reserved the order and later remanded Ruia to police custody for seven days.
The case stems from a complaint lodged on April 3, 2024, by Swapan Kumar Mandal at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station. Mandal alleged he was contacted in November 2023 by a firm named KKRMF promising high returns on share investments. After verifying its online presence, he invested over Rs 93 lakh by January 2024, after which he was denied access to his funds on the pretext of regulatory issues linked to SEBI.
Subsequently, the CCW took over the probe and formed an SIT. Investigators found that 1,379 complaints had been registered against the entity on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal from across the country, involving around Rs 317 crore routed through corporate accounts of 148 shell companies.