Supreme Court Flags Fake Sureties Furnished By Foreign Nationals, Calls For Mechanism To Ensure Genuineness Of Bail Surety

Before the Supreme recently, a disturbing pattern of foreign nationals absconding after securing bail through fraudulent sureties in narcotics cases was exposed. The bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Vipul M Pancholi came across a matter where the Nigerian man involved in drug crimes and arrested under the NDPS Act, was granted bail based on surety, who later turned out to be fictitious. The Court questioned whether the National Informatics Centre's (NIC) surety verification module for trial courts was functional and adequate, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive re-evaluation of surety verification mechanisms across the country. “The problem of impersonation by sureties appears to be rampant in certain States. Whether the surety module prepared by the National Informatics Centre for Trial Courts in India is functional and operational, and what other mechanism exists for verification of the genuineness of sureties, are issues which, in our considered view, require a comprehensive examination.”, the court noted. The Court also impleaded the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as a party respondent to the instant petition, signalling potential Aadhaar-linked reforms in the verification of bail sureties. The case arises out of a Bombay High Court order which granted bail to the Respondent No.1-Nigerian man who is accused of involvement in a 4.9 kg heroin seizure, booked under a DRI case. The Bombay High Court had granted him bail in May 2025 on the grounds of “long incarceration.” However, after the Supreme Court stayed the bail order in September, the accused could not be traced despite look-out notices and repeated directions to the Maharashtra Police. During the proceedings, the DRI filed an affidavit revealing that the surety furnished for the accused was entirely fictitious. The address was non-existent, the employer disowned any connection with the surety, and the bank confirmed that the account details provided were fake. Even the PAN and Aadhaar numbers did not match any real account holder. Further, the DRI's affidavit revealed that in at least 38 cases “investigated by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and in 9 cases investigated by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), foreign nationals, particularly from Nigeria and Nepal, have absconded, after furnishing sureties which were later found to be fake.” Taking a serious note of the issue, the Court also asked the Additional Sessions Judge, Mumbai V.M. Sundale “to furnish a detailed report relating to the acceptance of sureties in the present case, including the steps taken by him for complying with the statutory requirements. Such a report shall be submitted within a period of two weeks from today.” The matter is listed next on December 17, 2025. Cause Title: UNION OF INDIA VERSUS CHIDIEBERE KINGSLEY NAWCHARA & ANR.Click here to read the order

Supreme Court Flags Fake Sureties Furnished By Foreign Nationals, Calls For Mechanism To Ensure Genuineness Of Bail Surety

Yash Mittal

The problem of impersonation by sureties appears to be rampant in certain States, the Court said.

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