Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Wednesday granted bail to a Tamil Nadu resident accused of duping an army officer of over one crore rupees by allegedly posing as a prominent businessman, financer and co-producer of the film Baahubali, and claimed to have high-level access to Parliament and the President's House.

“....in the absence of any statutory bar to grant of bail in economic offence of the present nature, declining bail to the petitioner on the said ground would not be legally permissible,” a bench of Justice Sanjaj Dhar said while allowing bail plea of the 35-year-old resident, Nagraj V who according to officials has been also found to be allegedly involved in financial scams in the state of Tamil Nadu besides being an accused in grabbing rupees several crores from a film producer, music director and medical students in the name of medical seats and from others for clearing a project in which some of his family members were also involved.

“In the face of....legal position, it is clear that mere pendency of multiple FIRs against an accused cannot by itself be a ground to deny bail in a case where the maximum punishment for the offence for which the accused is charged extends upto seven or ten years, particularly when the chargesheet stands produced against him and he has spent more than one and a half years in jail as an undertrial,” the court said. Thus, the bench said, denying the concession of bail to Nagraj may not be a proper exercise of discretion vested with the Court under Section 483 of BNSS as the same would militate against the principle that“bail is the rule and jail is exception”.

Subsequently, the court granted bail to him by imposing several conditions.

According to the army officer, Nagraj came into contact with him in the month of August 2023 and by posing himself as a big businessman, financer, co-producer of Bahubali (Movie), expressed his desire to invest in Kashmir. He also asked the army officer that if he was interested in buying a house in Delhi, he could get him the same at reasonable rates. On 8 September 2023, Nagraj requested him to transfer Rs. 12 lacs in his father's account as he was going to the President's house. The complainant transferred Rs. 11 lacs from his account and Rs. 1 lac from his wife's account. On 12 September, 2023, Nagraj called the complainant to Delhi for discussing the property matter and the complainant went to his house in Defence Colony, New Delhi.

MENAFN26112025000215011059ID1110403403