India's anti-corruption court has sentenced 14 individuals to life imprisonment, including 11 police officers and a former legislator from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for their involvement in a cryptocurrency case involving the kidnapping and extortion of a Surat businessman in 2018.
According to the Times of India, Ahmedabad special judge B.B. Jadav delivered the verdict on Friday, finding the gang guilty of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, illegal detention, and assault.
The convicted individuals include former Amreli district police chief Jagdish Patel and former legislator Nalin Kotadiya. All 11 police officers, including former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Patel, were also found guilty of misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case revolves around businessman Shailesh Bhatt, who reportedly recovered part of his lost investment in Bitcoin from BitConnect developer Dhaval Mavani after the closure of a company valued at $900 million.
Upon learning that Bhatt had successfully recovered part of his investment, Kotadiya and senior officials from Amreli allegedly conspired to seize the cryptocurrency. On February 11, 2018, Bhatt was kidnapped and illegally detained at Keshav Farm near Gandhinagar.
The kidnapping operation was led by Amreli local crime branch inspector Anant Patel and involved multiple officials. Reports indicate that Bhatt was beaten and coerced into admitting that he had received 752 Bitcoins from Mavani, with 176 of them stored with his partner Kirit Paladiya. The remainder was sold for approximately $5 million.
Bhatt was only released after agreeing to transfer part of the Bitcoin and $3.6 million in cash. When the transaction failed, the defendants forced Bhatt to sell 34 Bitcoins from Paladiya's wallet, resulting in a $150,000 extortion.
Bhatt later filed a complaint with the federal Ministry of Home Affairs, prompting a criminal investigation and the arrest of 15 individuals. The prosecution, led by special public prosecutor Amit Patel, presented 173 witnesses during the trial.
The court also ordered the confiscation of gold jewelry recovered from Amreli police chief Patel, which will be transferred to the director of the mint in Mumbai.
Last week, Thai authorities arrested a South Korean man, accusing him of helping a call center gang launder over $50 million worth of cryptocurrency into gold.
Related: Opinion: Supreme Court Greenlights Monitoring of Crypto Wallets; Privacy Must Be On-Chain
Original: “Indian Court Sentences 14 to Life in Bitcoin (BTC) Extortion Case”
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