1 CGHC010214622026 2026:CGHC:27570 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MCRC No. 5110 of 2026 1 - Saurabh Jain S/o- Late Subhash Jain, Aged About 38 Years R/o- Sector 16, D.D. Nagar, Police Station- D. D. Nagar, District- Raipur (C.G.) ... Petitioner(s) versus 1 - State of Chhattisgarh Through- P.S. Mahasamund, District- Mahasamund (C.G.) ... Respondent(s) For Applicant : Smt. Naushina Ali, Sr. Advocate and Shri Ajay Kumrani, Advocate. For State : Ms. Isha Jajodiya, Panel Lawyer. Hon’ble Shri Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, J Order on Board 03.07.2026 1. This is first bail application under Section 483 of BNSS, 2023, seeking grant of bail to the Applicant who is in jail since 26.04.2026 in connection with Crime No.188/2026 registered at Police Station Mahasamund, District Mahasamund for the offence punishable under Sections 6 & 7 of The Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act, 2022 2. As per prosecution case, on 08.04.2026 Mahasamund Police received a secret information that one Dipesh Goswami is actively involved in online gambling at Baba Family Dhaba, Ghodari, Mahasamund. When the police party conducted raid in the said Dhaba, they found the INDRAJEET SAHU Digitally signed by INDRAJEET SAHU Date: 2026.07.06 17:30:40 +0530 2 accused persons namely Dipesh Goswami @ Suman, Manish Sharma @ Raja@ Moosa, Hitesh @ Monu Sahu, Hitesh @ Pinku Sahu, Nanvneet Dewangan @ Babu, Ujjal Dewangan @ Raja and their mobile phones were seized. In their mobile phones various money transactions were found through Phone Pay on different dates. On interrogation, they disclosed about their syndicate and playing online gambling. Manish Sharma disclosed Power-x whatsapp group on which he was connected with Ujjal Dewangan, Nanveet Dewangan and Hitesh Sahu @ Pinku and also admitted money transaction by online gambling. When they were arrested, all of them admitted their involvement in Power-x whatsapp group and stated that Manish Sharma provided online gambling link to Dipesh Goswami and he circulated it other accused persons. From the mobile phone of other accused persons, their active involvement in the betting app of online gambling were found and they share id password thereafter the screen shots were being taken. Their memorandum statement have also been recorded in which the accused Nanveet Dewangan disclosed that on the instance of co accused Durgesh Dahare, he started playing online gambling and Durgesh Dahare provided him online betting App link of UNCKLEBET9 and user id DKAUDI14 through the present applicant Saurabh Jain and also disclosed that Saurabh Jain is earning 3 percent commission from the income of online gambling. He also disclosed the mobile number of Durgesh Dahare and online master id of betting App. When Durgesh Dahare was interrogated, he also disclosed involvement of present applicant Saurabh Jain. In his memorandum statement, he disclosed that one year back he came in contact with 3 Nishant Nagwani and Gore @ Dharmesh Pandit who allured him to engage with online gambling and he started playing online gambling with them. Vikky Gaba is the panel operator of UNCKLEBET9 who was earing 19 percent of its income, out of which he provided him 9 percent profit and 15 percent of UNCKLEBET777.com panel. The said panel of online gambling was forwarded to customers by him, however, Vikky Gaba was admin. Nishant Nagwani was also engaged in grand777.com and earing 12 percent, 17 percent from powerexch.com, 18 percent from vazeerx.com, 13 percent each from classic7777.com and grandexch.com and provided him 3 percent profit from that earning. Likewise Gore @ Dharmesh Pandit and other person’s involvement was disclosed. With respect to present applicant Saurabh Jain, it has been disclosed that he provided master id of UNCKLEBET9 panel @ 20 percent and Saurabh Jain retained 3 percent for himself and remaining was given to Nanveet Dewangan who forwarded the said id link to other customers for online gambling. Numerous mobile links forwarded to other persons, mobile phones and transactions have been disclosed by Durgesh Dahre in his memorandum statement and then the present applicant Saurabh Jain was also arrested on 26.04.2026. After investigation, charge sheet was filed. 3. Learned Counsel for the applicant would submit that the applicant is not named in the FIR. His name is disclosed by the co-accused Durgesh Dahre and after investigation charge sheet has been filed. There is no admissible evidence against the applicant to connect him in the offence in question. No further custodial interrogation is required 4 from the applicant. In this case there are 12 accused persons, out of which 5 accused persons have been released on bail by the trial court. Except seizure of mobile phone of the applicant, no other incriminating materials have been seized from the applicant. From the mobile phone of the applicant or other accused persons no incriminating material have been abstracted which connects the applicant in the offence of online gambling. Further, the memorandum statement as well as the electronic evidence of mobile phone like screen shot or call details are inadmissible in evidence. Even from the screen shots taken out from the mobile phone of other accused persons, there is no description of present applicant or his mobile number disclosed which directly connect him in the offence in question. Although the applicant has two criminal antecedents of the year 2021 and 2025, but that itself cannot be a ground to reject the bail application of the applicant. Final adjudication of the case will take its own time, the alleged offences are triable by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, the applicant is in jail since 26.04.2026, and therefore, he may be enlarged on bail. Reliance has been placed upon the judgment of Supreme Court in case of Prabhakar Tiwari Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Another, 2020(11)SCC 648 and order dated 22.04.2022 passed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in MCrC No.15398 of 2022 (Pappu @ Rajaram Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh). 4. On the other hand the counsel for the State opposes the bail application and have submitted that from the mobile phone of other accused persons as well as from their memorandum statement, the involvement of the applicant is disclosed. From the memorandum 5 statement of co-accused Durgesh Dahre a huge network of their online gambling and money transaction was detected including involvement of the present applicant. From the mobile phones of accused persons, the relevant data were extracted in which the details of party name, agent share, betting App name, id name and credit/debit balance was recovered in which the name of present applicant is also there and his share on the betting App is also reflected in the said details. The applicant is having criminal antecedents of similar nature of offence of the year 2021 and 2025 which is till pending for its consideration before the trial court and he is a habitual offender and despite released on bail, he repeated the offence. Therefore, looking to the gravity of the offence, their network for playing online gambling and his involvement with other co-accused persons, he is not entitled for bail. 5. I have heard the counsel for the parties and perused the case diary. 6. Considering the submissions made by the counsel for the parties, considering the nature of allegations and the material collected during investigation, considering the fact that from the memorandum statement of witness Durgesh Dahre various screen shots and details have been recovered in which the involvement of present applicant Saurabh Jain is clearly reflected that he is the share holder of betting App platform having agent share of 20 to 50 percent; available screen shots in case diary; relevant material about online gambling and further that the applicant is having two criminal antecedents of similar nature of the year, 2021 and 2025 and also considering the gravity of the offence and their syndicate to play online gambling, I am not inclined to release the applicant on bail at this stage. Although, the criminal 6 antecedents alone cannot be a ground to reject the bail application as has been held in Prabhakar Tiwari (Supra), however, in the present case apart from criminal antecedents there are sufficient material in the case against him to prima facie consider the case against him that he is also a part of syndicate of online gambling and all the accused persons running their huge network through online mode of online gambling. 7. Accordingly, the bail application of applicant Saurabh Jain is rejected. Sd/- (Ravindra Kumar Agrawal) Judge inder