Sessions court denies bail in high profile matrimonial scam

Mumbai: A sessions court has rejected the bail and anticipatory bail pleas of six accused booked for running a matrimonial fraud, extortion, and sexual exploitation racket and allegedly swindling Rs 1.45 crore from a 29-year-old city resident who works in a senior position at a prominent multinational bank.

The two main accused, Ahmedabad-based Jay Brahmbhatt (30) and Jayraj Gadhavi (30), who were acquainted with each other, are alleged to have financially and sexually exploited the victim after matching with her on a matrimonial site where her parents had uploaded her profile. The other accused—Jay’s brother Manthan (34) and mother Avani (58), along with Jayraj’s brother Vivekdan (29) and sister-in-law Monika Gadhavi (26) — allegedly assisted the duo in executing the crimes.

In separate orders on Thursday, the court rejected the bail pleas of the arrested accused, Jay and Jayraj, as well as the anticipatory bail pleas of the other family members.

“…the accused, in furtherance of their common intention, have systematically deceived the informant and induced her to part with money. The recovery is yet to be made. The investigation is at primary level,” additional sessions judge Neeta S Anekar said.

Citing possible tampering of evidence and absconding, the victim opposed the pleas through her lawyer Marmik Shah.

On April 4, 2026, the woman filed an FIR at a suburban police station detailing the scam. She told the police that her ordeal began in Nov 2024 when she matched with Jay. He presented himself as an advocate running his own company, gained her mother’s and her trust and initiated a romantic relationship under the pretext of an intention to marry her. It is alleged that Jay initially tricked her into paying Rs 13,700 for designer make-up gifts, claiming his credit cards were failing. By mid-Dec 2024, he falsely claimed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had frozen his accounts and seized his devices. He went on to use her credit card without authorisation and allegedly purchased a Rs 46,598 mobile phone. Soon after, during a visit to Ahmedabad, he allegedly subjected her to unwanted physical advances and sexual harassment inside a vehicle under the guise of their upcoming marriage.

It was further alleged that over the next six months, with the active involvement of his mother, Avani, Jay manipulated the woman into exhausting her credit cards, including a Rs 2.99 lakh transaction at a jewellery store and taking huge personal loans under threat. In total, through loans, interest, and processing fees, Jay allegedly extracted around Rs 83.5 lakh, returning only Rs 5.5 lakh. Certain amount of the money was received in Avani’s accounts with Manthan’s knowledge.

The victim further alleged that when her mother and she attempted to confront Jay’s family in Ahmedabad, they were forbidden from speaking about the money, and by April 2025, severed all contact and blocked her from any contact. The woman went into depression.

The victim alleged that while recovering from this trauma, she was targeted a second time on the same matrimonial site by Jayraj who claimed to be working for a multinational financial firm. She alleged that he initially claimed he could help her recover the money stolen by Jay as he had contacts with senior police officials in Ahmedabad but instead redirected Rs 3.80 of a “recovered amount” into his own account. In Nov 2025, he arrived in the city to meet the woman, allegedly lured the woman to a luxury hotel room on the pretext of taking some medicines and sexually assaulted her under the false promise of marriage. Between Aug 2025, and March 2026, Jayraj allegedly forced the victim to use her credit card and avail a personal loan, successfully obtaining over Rs one crore of which he only returned Rs 37.40 lakh. During this period, J Vivekdan and Monika allegedly assisted in the deception by calling the victim to claim that their father had died and that Jayraj was suicidal. By this he manipulating the victim into parting with more money.

The FIR was registered under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating, cheating by impersonation, extortion, criminal intimidation, sexual offence under false promise of marriage and offences under the Information Technology (IT) Act.