Ahmedabad City Sessions Court has convicted 14 accused, including former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya and senior Gujarat police officers, in the 2018 Bitcoin extortion case. They were sentenced to life imprisonment under relevant sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to a report by The New India Express, the case started in 2018 with the kidnapping of Shailesh Bhatt, a builder and Bitcoin trader from Surat. Reportedly, a group of police officers in official government cars took him from a gas station to a farmhouse. The accused took 200 Bitcoins, worth about ₹12 crore at the time, and asked for ₹32 crore in ransom. Bhatt also reported that someone posing as an agent from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) tricked him into meeting.
The investigation also revealed that Bhatt had previously stolen ₹150 crore worth of Bitcoin from a Surat man named Dhawal Mawani. When the perpetrators found this out, they, including Kotadiya, planned to steal from Bhatt.
The investigation initially started after Bhatt filed an official complaint with the Indian Criminal Investigation Department (CID). As the CID’s probe went on, they detained 10 police officials, including Amreli SP Jagdish Patel, Amreli LCB PI Anant Patel, and Ketan Patel, a lawyer from Surat. Their questioning quickly pointed towards Jagdish Patel and Kotadiya. Later, a non-bailable warrant was also issued for Kotadiya’s arrest while he went into hiding.
The case got even bigger when a real CBI Inspector, Sunil Nair, got involved. Nair is said to have asked Bhatt for a bribe and then threatened to start a false probe into him if he failed to pay him.
After Shailesh Bhatt’s explosive complaint, CID got to work and arrested everyone involved in the extortion. The trial took place at the ACB Special Court of the City Civil and the Sessions Court in Ahmedabad, where the state brought in an incredible 172 witnesses against them.
The defense, on the other hand, could only call one witness. Even though 92 witnesses said they were hostile, the court judged the evidence and reasons good enough to convict the accused.
In this case, while justice has been served, globally a surge in crypto-related crimes, specifically those involving extortion and kidnapping, can be seen. In February, the Spanish police had arrested 3 British citizens for kidnapping a UK cryptocurrency trader in Marbella and demanding a £25,000 ransom.
Also Read: How Social Engineering Fooled a Millionaire Out of $1.2M in Crypto
