IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.90071 of 2025 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-16 Year-2025 Thana- ECONOMIC OFFENCES, BIHAR District- Patna ====================================================== Harshit Kumar S/o Vikash Chandra Mishra R/o Ward no 6, Gauspur, Police Station- Karjain, District- Supaul ... ... Petitioner/s Versus 1. The State of Bihar 2. The Deputy Superintendent of Police-cum-Station House Officer, Economic, Economic Offence Unit, Bihar, Patna ... ... Opposite Party/s ====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr. N.K. Agrawal, Sr. Advocate Mr. Mithilesh Prasad Sharma, Advocate Mr. Kumar Rajdeep, Advocate Mr. Saroj Kumar Choudhary, Advocate Mr. Shivendu Shekhar, Advocate For the State : Mr. Sanjay Kumar Pandey, APP For the EOU : Mr. V.N.P. Sinha, Sr. Advocate Mr. Vijay Anand, Advocate ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ASHOK KUMAR PANDEY CAV ORDER 9 17-04-2026 Heard learned Senior counsel for the petitioner, learned APP for the State and learned Senior counsel for the EOU. 2. The petitioner has prayed for bail in connection with Economic Offence Case No.16 of 2025 registered for the offence punishable under Sections 318(4), 319(2), 336(3), 338, 340(2), 111, 61(2) & 3(5) of the BNS, under Sections 42(1), 42(2), 42(3) & 42(6) of the Tele Communication Act and under Sections 66, 66(C), 66(D) and 72 of the I.T. Act. 3. The case of the prosecution, in short, is that Deputy Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.90071 of 2025(9) dt.17-04-2026 2/6 S.P., Economic Offence Unit, Bihar, Patna got a letter dated 25.06.2025 issued by Additional Director General, Telecom Department, Telephone Bhawan, R.Block, Patna and was informed with respect to the complaint of cyber crime lodged by the public on Sanchar Sathi Portal. It was found on analysis in detail of Tower Dump Data, IMFI tracking and calling that in Gauspur village of Supaul District, suspected cyber crime is going on through illegal SIM box. It was also informed that illegal SIM box set up is being used in cyber fraud, where in place of 50, 231 suspect mobile numbers has been identified and all numbers have been issued by the POS of Vaishali District, details mentioned in the FIR. To verify regarding information of above offence, an SIT was constituted comprising different Officers of EOU, Patna to investigate the alleged cyber offence. The raiding team arrived at the house of Harshit Kumar (petitioner) and conducted raid in presence of witnesses and recovered different items and prepared seizure list and the petitioner was arrest for alleged offence of keeping SIM box illegally, converting the BOIP calls into local calls to cause revenue loss to the Government, to keep fake SIMs and for allegedly cyber crime. 4. Learned Senior counsel appearing on behalf of the Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.90071 of 2025(9) dt.17-04-2026 3/6 petitioner has submitted that petitioner is innocent and has committed no offence and has been falsely implicated in this case. As per record, the petitioner was arrested on 20.07.2025 at about 10:05 hrs but produced before the learned trial court on 22.07.2025 and there is no explanation in the FIR with regard to the delay. It has further been submitted that the signature, under threat and duress, was taken on some blank paper and converted the same into confessional statement of the petitioner. The petitioner has started his career as politician and he is Youth Secretary of Janta Dal United Youth Wing, Bihar and with an intention to ruin his career, his name has been deliberately dragged and implicated because of political rivalry. It has further been submitted that the petitioner is himself victim in this case who has been trapped by unknown persons, whose ID displayed in the facebook and nothing incriminating recovered from the possession of the petitioner which connects in the alleged cyber crime. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioner has also relied on the order of learned Co-ordinate Bench passed in Cr. Misc. Nos. 3820 of 2026 and 692 of 2026 and order of this court in Cr. Misc No. 80160 of 2025. 5. Countering this, learned Senior counsel for the EOU has vehemently opposed the bail and has submitted that Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.90071 of 2025(9) dt.17-04-2026 4/6 from perusal of the FIR it will transpire that from possession of this petitioner a SIM box setup was recovered containing 231 SIMs and out of these 231 SIMs, from 144 mobile numbers, between 30.06.2025 to 02.07.2025 altogether 51,000 calls have been made in different parts of the country. It has further been submitted that from one of the numbers which was recovered from the possession of the petitioner was used in cyber fraud. It has further been disclosed that in the counter affidavit of the EOU that altogether 25 complaints are registered against the SIMs which was recovered from the petitioner as per NCRP portal. 6. It is worth noting that a SIM box is a physical device that can hold anywhere from dozens to hundreds of SIM cards simultaneously. It connects these SIM cards to a cellular network and routes their traffic through the internet using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Misuse of SIM boxes have been called SIM boxes fraud or interconnect bypass fraud which is a major issue for telecom industry. Common methods of misuse included :- (i) Bypassing international Charges : (ii) Bulk Phishing & Smishing : (iii) Caller ID Spoofing : Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.90071 of 2025(9) dt.17-04-2026 5/6 (iv) National Security Threats : (v) Service Degradation : 7. The manner in which SIM Box scam works is as follows :- The scam typically starts when criminals acquire thousands of SIM cards mainly due to fake identities. These SIMs are loaded into SIM Boxes connected to servers and dongles. The system then sends out lakhs of SMS messages daily, tricking victims into clicking malicious links or sharing sensitive banking details. The CBI investigation revealed that even foreign cyber criminals were using these services to cheat Indian citizens, making the scam a transitional threat. 8. The order of the learned Co-ordinate Bench which is relied upon by the learned Senior counsel for the petitioner is of no help to him as the case of the petitioners who were granted bail by learned Co-ordinate Bench is different from this petitioner. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioner has also relied on an order of this Court passed in Cr. Misc. No. 80160 of 2025 wherein this Court has granted bail to the petitioner where from an accused a SIM box was recovered having 256 SIMs. This order is also of no avail to the petitioner as there was no allegation of cheating anybody against the said petitioner. 9. In this case, altogether 1400 SIMs in a SIM box Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.90071 of 2025(9) dt.17-04-2026 6/6 have been recovered from the possession of the petitioner and altogether 25 complaints are there against the mobile numbers which were recovered from the said SIM box as per NCRP portal. Cyber crime is a menace to the society. 10. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and considering the facts and circumstances of the case, I am not inclined to grant bail to the petitioner at this stage, however, the petitioner may renew his prayer for bail after six months, if the trial is not concluded. 11. Accordingly, the present bail application stands rejected. 12. As far as producing the petitioner before Magistrate after 24 hours is concerned, in this regard, Office is directed to issue show cause to the Concerned Officials as it is the fundamental right of the petitioner to be produced before a Magistrate within 24 hours of arrest. durgesh/- (Ashok Kumar Pandey, J) AFR/NAFR NAFR CAV DATE 19.03.2026 Uploading Date 17.04.2026 Transmission Date 17.04.2026