An Indian Anti -Corruption Court has sentenced 14 people, including 11 police officers and a former member of the Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), to life imprisonment in a case that involves the kidnapping and extortion of cryptography of a Surrat headquarters in 2018.
The sentence, pronounced by the special judge BB Jadav in Ahmedabad on Friday, found the guilty group of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping of rescue, illegal detention and assault, according to a report by The Times of India.
Among those convicted are the former police superintendent of the Amreli district, Jagdish Patel and former Mlain Kotadiya. The 11 police, including former IPS officer, Patel, were also declared guilty under the Corruption Prevention Law for misconduct by public servants.
The case focuses on businessman Shailesh Bhatt, who, according to the reports, had recovered a part of his lost investment from Bitconnect Dhaval Mavani developer in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), after the company of $ 900 million in which he invested.
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Surat businessman kidnapped on Bitcoin
Upon learning that Bhatt managed to recover some of his investments, Kotadiya and the senior officers in Amreli allegedly orchestrated a plot to seize cryptography. On February 11, 2018, Bhatt was kidnapped and illegally celebrated at Keshav Farm, near Gandhinagar.
The kidnapping was led by the inspector of the branch of the local crime of Amreli, Anant Patel, and involved multiple officers. According to the reports, Bhatt was beaten and forced to admit that he had received 752 Bitcoin from Mavani and had stored 176 of them with his associate, Kirit Paladiya. The rest were sold for around $ 5 million.
Bhatt was released only after accepting a part of the bitcoin and $ 3.6 million in cash. When the agreement failed, the defendant forced Bhatt to sell 34 bitcoin of Paladiya’s wallet, which resulted in an extortion of $ 150,000.
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The cryptographic kidnapping probe triggers 15 arrests
Later, Bhatt filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry of the union, which caused a criminal investigation and the arrest of 15 people. The Prosecutor’s Office, led by Special Prosecutor Amit Patel, presented 173 witnesses during the trial.
The court also ordered the confiscation of the gold ornaments recovered from Amreli Sp Patel, which will be transferred to Mint’s teacher in Mumbai.
Last week, Thai authorities arrested a South Korean man accused of helping a gang washing center to gold cryptocurrencies worth more than $ 50 million.
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