Mumbai: The special PMLA court on Tuesday granted bail to Chirag Shah and Chintan Shah, arrested in connection with the Fairplay app money laundering case observing that there is no predicate offence against them. Chirag and Chintan were arrested in February for their alleged role in the Fairplay app money laundering case.
The ED's investigation is based on an FIR filed by the Nodal Cyber Police in Mumbai, following a complaint by Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd. The complaint accuses Fairplay Sports LLC and others of illegal activities that caused revenue losses. The ED has claimed that approximately Rs 4,679 crore was remitted outside India between March 2023 and August 2024. These funds were later brought back into India for further investments.
Chintan and Chirag's lawyer senior counsel Pranav Badheka had contended that there is no predicate offence against the two. It was pointed out that the case filed by Viacom18 media has been settled and the case has been quashed by the Bombay high court.
To this, ED contended that their case was not only based on the complaint lodged by Viacom18 but there are other complaints also lodged against Fairplay.
The court noted that at the time of their arrest, the case was restricted only to the complaint of Viacom18. It was only on February 15, other complaints were subsumed.
Further the court said, “None of the subsumed FIR, applicants/accused were shown as accused. Therefore, it can be presumed that in none of the Information Report given for registration of such FIRs, there is mention that the accused persons have cheated the informant.” Hence the court noted that prima-facie it appears that there is no role of the accused in the offence of cheating and conspiracy.
