Man accused of impersonating former Patna High Court Chief Justice moves Supreme Court for bail

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on a bail plea by a 25-year-old man accused of impersonating the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in 2022 [Md. Yusuf Ahmed v. State of Bihar and Another]..The man is alleged to have impersonated the then High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol (now a sitting Supreme Court judge) to dupe the Registrar General of the Patna High Court into buying him 15 Amazon gift cards worth ₹10,000 per card.On Tuesday, a Division Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih issued notice on the bail plea by the accused."Issue notice, returnable on 30th September, 2024. Liberty is granted to serve the Standing Counsel for the first respondent-State, in addition," the Court ordered..The case dates back to July 2022 when the Registrar General of the Patna High Court received a WhatsApp message from a number which had the profile picture of Justice Karol, asking him to arrange 15 Amazon gift cards.The message asked the Registrar General to share the gift cards through the links provided by the sender on a different mobile number. Believing it to be a message from the Chief Justice, the Registrar General arranged the said gift cards and shared the same with the sender.The Registrar General is said to have paid around ₹1,50,000 from his salary account to buy those cards. However, upon realising that the number on which he shared the gift cards was not the number used by Justice Karol, he tried redeeming the cards himself, but was able to redeem only 5 out of the 15 gift cards..A first information report (FIR) was then registered under Sections 379 (theft), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 66C and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.A man who allegedly bought the gift cards later, Sudhakar Marella, named Md. Yusuf Ahmed (the bail applicant) as the person who sold him the cards in a confessional statement. The Sessions Court and the High Court denied bail to Ahmed. Aggrieved, he has approached the top court for relief. .Before the top court, Ahmed has argued that he is not named in the FIR and that his name has only surfaced after the confession of the co-accused, Marella. There is no direct evidence against him, Ahmed contended.He further submitted that he has been in custody since February 1, 2023 and is losing out on crucial career building years of his life because he is not being granted bail.Advocates Raja Choudhary, Sanyam Jain, Vikas Pal, Kumar Saurabh, Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Gumrmehar Vaan Singh, appeared for the appellant/ bail applicant..[Read Order]