1 CGHC010367142026 2026:CGHC:43325 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MCRC No. 8892 of 2026 Sunil Kumar Komre S/o Shri Faguram Komre Aged About 32 Years R/o Bital Police Station Dallirajhara, District- Balod (C.G.) --- Applicant versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station Ganj, Distt- Raipur (C.G.) --- Respondent For Applicant : Mr. Hrishikesh Sharma, Advocate For Respondent/State : Ms. Supriya Upasane, Govt. Advocate MCRC No. 8940 of 2026 1 - Harish Nayak @ Bhola Nayak S/o Leeladhar Nayak Aged About 25 Years R/o- Sikola Basti Police Station Mohan Nagar District Durg (C.G.) 2 - Akash Sagar S/o Jadho Sagar Aged About 26 Years S/o Jadho Sagar, R/o Raipur Naka Durg, Ward 47, Sindhi Colony Police Station Padmanabhpur, Distt. Durg, Chhattisgarh. ---Applicant Versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through- Sho Ganj, District- Raipur (C.G.) --- Respondent For Applicants : Mr. Aman Tamrakar, Advocate For Respondent/State : Ms. Supriya Upasane, Govt. Advocate VED PRAKASH DEWANGAN Digitally signed by VED PRAKASH DEWANGAN Date: 2026.10.07 18:25:01 +0530 2 MCRC No. 9064 of 2026 Kamlesh Dewangan S/o Sitaram Dewangan Aged About 40 Years R/o New Changorabhata Shree Ram Nagar, P/s D.D. Nagar, District Raipur (C.G.) ---Applicant Versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer (S.H.O.), Police Ganj, Distt. Raipur (C.G.) --- Respondent For Applicant : Mr. Awadh Tripathi, Advocate For Respondent/State : Ms. Supriya Upasane, Govt. Advocate MCRC No. 8904 of 2026 Sushil Kumar Paswan S/o Tilakram Paswan Aged About 30 Years R/o Village Denda, Post Lalpur, District- Basti (U.P.) ---Applicant Versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station Ganj, Distt- Raipur (C.G.) --- Respondent For Applicant : Mr. Hrishikesh Sharma, Advocate For Respondent/State : Ms. Supriya Upasane, Govt. Advocate MCRC No. 8896 of 2026 Kunal Bhoi S/o Deepak Bhoi Aged About 27 Years R/o Nayapar Ward No. 05, Police Station Mahasamund District Mahasamund C. G. ---Applicant Versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station Ganj, District Raipur C.G. --- Respondent For Applicant : Mr. Hrishikesh Sharma, Advocate For Respondent/State : Ms. Supriya Upasane, Govt. Advocate 3 MCRC No. 8894 of 2026 Dharamraj S/o Shiv Kumar Chiram Aged About 23 Years R/o Bital, Police Station - Dallirajhara, District - Balod (C.G.) ---Applicant Versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through, Station House Officer, Police Station Ganj, Distt. Raipur (C.G.) ... Respondent (Cause title taken from Case Information System) For Applicant : Mr. Hrishikesh Sharma, Advocate For Respondent/State : Ms. Supriya Upasane, Govt. Advocate Hon'ble Shri Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal Order on Board 06/10/2026 1. All these regular bail applications are arising out of the same crime number, therefore, they are being heard and decided together. 2. The details of the MCRC numbers and the applicants are given hereinbelow which is as under:- Case Numbers Name of Applicants Date of Arrest MCRC No. 8892/2026 Sunil Kumar Komre 15.04.2026 MCRC No. 8894/2026 Dharamraj 15.04.2026 MCRC No. 8896/2026 Kunal Bhoi 15.04.2026 MCRC No. 8904/2026 Sushil Kumar Paswan 15.04.2026 MCRC No. 8940/2026 (1) Harish Nayak @ Bhola Nayak (2) Akash Sagar 16.04.2026 MCRC No. 9064/2026 Kamlesh Dewangan 14.04.2026 4 3. These are the first bail applications under Section 483 of Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (hereinafter referred as “BNSS”). The applicants are claiming regular bail in connection with Crime No. 110/2026, registered at Police Station Ganj, Raipur for the offence under Section 7 of the Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act, 2022 and Sections 112(2) of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023. 4. The case of the prosecution is that on 13.04.2026, the police of Police Station Ganj, while patrolling, received a secret information that a person is engaged in online gambling in a cricket match through mobile phone, and such person was present in his Honda City Car bearing No. CG 04 NS 5007 at Nagorao Gali underbridge. The police conducted a raid and arrested co-accused Mandeep Singh, who was found in the said Honda City Car. On interrogation and search of Mandeep Singh, one mobile phone and cash amounting to Rs. 95,000/- were seized from him. In his memorandum statement, he disclosed that he was engaged in online cricket gambling through the betting app “3 Stumps” and that co-accused Babu Khemani was the owner of the said online book. Kamlesh Dewangan, who is the agent of Babu Khemani, collected the cash amount from the online gambling activities. He also disclosed that Karan Khemani, Brahmanand Khemani, Shrikant Sinha and Vijay Pinjwani, mobile Nos. 9893324707, 7044930036 and 7400930036, co-accused Amit Andani, mobile No. 9111555393, Harsh Nagdev, mobile No. 9526125220, Vinod Nara, mobile No. 9399898366, Akash, mobile No. 9826197555, and Rishikesh, mobile No. 9526125220, were engaged in online gambling from Pune, Mumbai and Goa and were running betting panels for IPL 5 cricket matches. From the mobile phones of co-accused Mandeep Singh, ID transactions from mobile Nos. 917777991972 and 917777991752, and from the mobile phone of Babu Khemani bearing No. 447782207749, ID transactions were reflected. Transactions between Kamlesh Dewangan through his mobile number to Karan Khemani, Brahmanand Khemani and Shrikant Sinha through their mobile numbers were also reflected. The involvement of the accused persons in online gambling in IPL cricket matches was extracted. Thereafter, the offence was registered and investigation was started. 5. During the investigation, the memorandum statement of Gulshan @ Babu Khemani was recorded, in which he disclosed the involvement of the present applicant Kamlesh Dewangan and other co-accused persons stating that they managed cash transactions in bank accounts. The accused Gulshan @ Babu Khemani also disclosed the manner in which they managed the affairs of online gambling, purchase of various properties at different places, and the involvement of other accused persons in their syndicate. The present applicants have been arrested on 14.04.2026, 15.04.2026 and 16.04.2026 respectively and from the applicant Kamlesh Dewangan one mobile phone and Rs. 20,000/- cash, from the applicant Sushil Kumar Paswan, one mobile phone, from the applicant Kunal Bhoi, one mobile phone and one laptop, from the applicant Dharamraj, 03 mobile phones and one laptop, from the applicant Sunil Kumar Komre, 04 mobile phones and from the applicant Harish Nayak @ Bhola Nayak, 02 mobile phones, Rs. 30,000/- cash, 16 ATM cards, 09 SIM cards and one cheque book and from the applicant Akash Sagar, one laptop, 03 6 mobile phones, one passbook, one cheque book and 09 SIM cards have been seized. After investigation the charge sheet has been filed. 6. Mr. Awadh Tripathi, learned counsel appearing for the applicant Kamlesh Dewangan (MCRC No. 9064 of 2026) would submit that, except the memorandum statement of Mandeep Singh and Babu Khemani, no other evidence available in the charge sheet against the present applicant. The witnesses to the memorandum statement Udit and Kanhaiya have also not disclosed in their statement anything against the present applicant. There is no allegation that the present applicant is also engaged in online gambling, but the allegation against him is that, he managed the cash amount of other accused persons allegedly generated from the online betting activities. About 13 accused persons have been granted bail by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Investigation has been completed and charge sheet has been filed and charges have been framed against the accused persons. Trial of the case will take its own time, the applicant is having no criminal antecedent and he is in jail since 14.04.2026. Therefore, he may be enlarged on bail. 7. Mr. Hrishikesh Sharma, learned counsel appearing for the applicants Sunil Kumar Komre (MCRC No. 8892 of 2026), Dharamraj (MCRC No. 8894 of 2026), Kunal Bhoi (MCRC No. 8896 of 2026) and Sushil Kumar Paswan (MCRC No. 8904 of 2026) would submit that in the memorandum statement of Harsh Nagdev, the names of the present applicants disclosed. From the electronic devices seized from the applicants, no any incriminating data, which allegedly involved the applicants with the offence in question, could be recovered by the 7 prosecution. Except the memorandum statement of the other co- accused persons, no other concrete evidence is available in the charge sheet. The memorandum statement of co-accused persons are inadmissible in evidence. Harsh Nagdev has been released on bail by the order passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. The applicants have no criminal antecedent and they are in jail since 15.04.2026 and final adjudication of the case will take its own time. Therefore, they may also be released on bail. 8. Mr. Aman Tamrakar, learned counsel appearing for the applicants Harish Nayak @ Bhola Nayak and Akash Sagar (MCRC No. 8940 of 2026) would also submit that, except for the memorandum statement of the co-accused persons, there is no other material against the present applicants to connect them with the offence in question. There is no evidence in the charge sheet that the present applicants have actively participated in the online gambling and part of the syndicate as alleged by the prosecution. There is no record of any bank transaction of the alleged transfer of money generated from online gambling activities. The other co-accused persons have been released on bail by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the case of the present applicants are also similar to them. The present applicants are in jail since 16.04.2026 and the trial of the case has not been started yet. The applicants are not having any criminal antecedent, therefore they may also be enlarged on bail. 9. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the State opposes the submissions made by learned counsel for the respective applicants and has submitted that, the allegations against the present applicants 8 are that they are also a part of the syndicate, which runs online gambling in cricket matches through the website “3 Stumps”, which is being operated by Gulshan @ Babu Khemani. The present applicants are also allegedly operating panels of online gambling in cricket matches and running their activities. The memorandum statement of the applicants have also been recorded, in which they also disclosed the manner of the online gambling activities, in which they along with other accused persons were involved. They also disclosed the operation of other betting App in the style of “www.wood777.com”, “www.wazirbook.com”, “3 stumps”, “bajrang group”, “reddy group” “rishu group” and other names. From the present applicants, their mobile phones, laptop, SIM cards, ATM cards, cheque book, passbook have been seized, from which sufficient material of online gambling have been extracted, which directly involved the present applicants in the syndicate of online gambling. Looking to the allegations that the accused persons have formed a syndicate and are engaged in online gambling, and that their online gambling activities are spread throughout various States of the country, like Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa, the huge network of their online gambling operations, the number of accused persons, who are part of their syndicate, the number of electronic gadgets which they are using for running online gambling, and the fact that the bail applications of other co-accused persons Vishal Kashyap (MCRC No. 8442 of 2026) and Harsh Nagdev (MCRC No. 6704 of 2026) have been rejected by this Court on 10.09.2026, the present applicants are not entitled to be released on bail. 9 10. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the case diary. 11. Having considered the submissions of learned counsel for the respective parties and having perused the material available on record and the case diary, this Court finds that the allegations against the present applicants are not confined merely to the memorandum statements of the co-accused persons. The prosecution has alleged that the applicants were part of an organized syndicate engaged in online gambling in cricket matches through various betting applications and panels, and during investigation several electronic devices, including mobile phones and laptops, as well as SIM cards, ATM cards, cheque books and passbooks, were seized from them, from which, incriminating material connecting the applicants with the alleged gambling activities has been extracted. The alleged activities of the syndicate are stated to have extended across different States and involved a large number of persons and electronic devices. The nature and extent of the alleged organized gambling network, the specific role attributed to the applicants, the material collected during investigation and the fact that the bail applications of co-accused Vishal Kashyap and Harsh Nagdev have already been rejected by this Court, are relevant circumstances weighing against the applicants at this stage. Merely because the charge-sheet has been filed, the applicants have no criminal antecedents, or some other co-accused have been granted bail by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, would not, in the facts and circumstances of the present case, constitute sufficient grounds for extending the benefit of bail to the present applicants. Having regard to 10 the gravity and nature of the allegations, the material collected during investigation and the overall circumstances of the case, this Court is of the considered view that the applicants do not make out a case for grant of bail. 12. Accordingly, the bail applications filed by Sunil Kumar Komre (MCRC No. 8892 of 2026), Dharamraj (MCRC No. 8894 of 2026), Kunal Bhoi (MCRC No. 8896 of 2026), Sushil Kumar Paswan (MCRC No. 8904 of 2026), Harish Nayak @ Bhola Nayak and Akash Sagar (MCRC No. 8940 of 2026), and Kamlesh Dewangan (MCRC No. 9064 of 2026) are hereby rejected. Sd/- (Ravindra Kumar Agrawal) Judge ved