Indian Police Officer Extorts Bitcoin Worth INR 13 Crore

BTC Wires: With the growing demand for cryptocurrencies in the world there are a lot of thefts and hacks that are taking place to take unfair advantage of the growing value of Bitcoin. One such Bitcoin theft incident took place in Gujarat, India in recent times.A businessman named Shailesh Bhatt has logged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation that he was kidnapped and was forced to transfer 200 Bitcoins (BTC) which are worth INR 13 crore. The complaint also stated that 10 police officers were also involved in this kidnapping, and that the group also included a superintendent of police (SP) and an inspector.

The complaint lodged by Shailesh states that he was called by the state (Gujarat) Central Bureau of Investigation officer Sunil Nair on the 9th of February, and had been threatened to come meet him at Gandhinagar CBI office.

The story continues to be that Mr Shailesh was allegedly beaten up and tortured and was demanded to pay INR 10 crore. After a long negotiation the ransom amount was fixed at INR 5 crore, which Shailesh says – was paid to Sunil Nair via a Hawala trader.

Soon after this incident, Shailesh states that he was kidnapped and was taken to an unknown place where he was asked to transfer 200 BTC which values to INR 13 crore to Kirit Paladiya, who was Shailesh’s former business partner.

This is what Shailesh had to say, in addition to the complaint he gave to CBI,

“They beat me up inside a room and threatened to kill me in a fake encounter if I did not hand over my Bitcoins. Amreli SP, Jagdish Patel and Amreli inspector, Anant Patel were involved. I was forced to transfer Rs 13 crore in Bitcoins to Paladiyaas account.”

Shailesh say that Paladiya is the only person that knows that Shailesh had invested money in bitcoins. To support the same, he mentioned a conversation that happened between him and Paladiya during the time of demonetization.

“I contacted Paladiya post demonetisation in 2016 to invest my money. He advised me to invest in Bitcoins and knew about my investment.”

With such envidence, Mr Shailesh has accused his former business partner Kirit Paladiya and also ex-MLA Nalin Kotadiya in this kidnap and extortion case.

Out of the 10 police officers who were mentioned in Shailesh’s complaint, three of the officers have been reportedly arrested and one of the inspectors Mr Patel is on the run, while the search for him is still ongoing.

Based on the complaint given by Shailesh, Gurjarat CIB has reportedly filed an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal code.