Supreme Court rejects Arif Nisar’s interim bail plea citing no urgent medical need. ED alleges scam involved fake cloud rental returns to dupe investors.
New Delhi: Today, on June 12, the Supreme Court of India refused to give interim bail on medical grounds to Arif Nisar, the founder of a Noida-based tech company and one of the main accused in a money laundering case linked to Vuenow Marketing Services Ltd.
The case involves a scam of over Rs 3,558 crore, where funds were allegedly rotated between old and new investors in the name of renting cloud particles.
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Nisar’s lawyer informed the Supreme Court bench, which included Justice P.K. Mishra and Justice Manmohan, that Nisar needed an injection and surgery to save the eyesight in his right eye.
However, the court observed that there were no medical recommendations from doctors that stated he needed to be hospitalised.
At this point, Nisar himself made a personal appeal to the court, asking for a new medical examination by doctors. But the top court refused his request.
The bench, however, gave him the option to go to the High Court for relief, saying he could approach them if doctors later recommend that he needs to be hospitalised.
Arif Nisar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as part of its ongoing investigation into Vuenow Marketing Services Ltd (VMSL) and its associated companies.
According to the ED, the Vuenow Group had floated two companies, Zebyte Infotech Private Limited (ZIPL) and Zebyte Rental Planet Private Limited (ZRPPL), to carry out the alleged fraud.
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The investigation agency claims these companies were not earning any actual rental income from clients. Instead, they were using money from new investors to pay earlier investors, falsely claiming it was rental income from sub-leased cloud particles.
“No rental income was generated from any clients who purported to have taken cloud particles on rent,” the ED said.
The agency added that Arif Nisar owns 75% of ZIPL and is not only the founder of the Vuenow Group but also a mentor and close associate of Sukhvinder Singh Kharour, who is believed to be the main mastermind behind this massive scam.
Sukhvinder Singh Kharour, along with his wife Dimple Kharour who both held top positions in the Vuenow Group have also been arrested by the ED.
The couple is accused of cheating the public by promising them high returns on the investment of cloud particles or servers.
The ED stated that the Kharours convinced people to buy cloud particles or servers and promised to lease them back, offering guaranteed monthly rental income in return.
The firm claimed this rent would be paid from the income received from renting out the servers to corporate clients.
But as per the ED’s findings, this was a fake promise.
the ED revealed,
“Funds to the tune of Rs 3,558 crore were raised through the alleged scam,”
According to the agency, the entire scheme was structured like a Ponzi scheme. New investors were brought in continuously, and their money was used to pay the old investors.
All this was done through multiple bank accounts under ZIPL and ZRPPL.
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The scam operated on the promise of a high annual return of 48%, which attracted a large number of people looking for a secure and profitable investment.
But there were no real clients or actual rentals, only a fake flow of money designed to make it look like investors were getting returns on their cloud server leases.
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