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A local sessions court heard the case for cryptocurrency extortion in Surat, India filed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID-Crime) on Tuesday. It declared ex-BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya a fugitive after he failed to appear in court despite repeated summons. He could not be found on any of his property and remains untraceable to date.

P G Tamakuwala, additional sessions judge, stated that Kotadiya is a “proclaimed offender” under section 82 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). In India, a proclaimed offender proceeding is carried out for an absconder, after which his passport may be confiscated. The court has ordered the ex-lawmaker to present himself within 30 days. Despite the court issuing a warrant, CID could not find him on his property. After failing to trace his whereabouts, the agency filed a motion again to declare him a proclaimed offender.

Builder Shailesh Bhatt from Surat had filed a complaint against some police officers who kidnapped him and his partner Kirit Paladia from Gandhinagar on Feb. 9, 2018. They were taken to a farmhouse and were detained there by the accused. The two were beaten by the policemen, who demanded an extortion amount of Rs. 9cr (~$1.3 million) in Bitcoins owned by Paladia.

The most prominent name in the case is that of Anant Patel, an Amreli police officer who was arrested first. At least nine other policemen and some middlemen have been arrested in this case, including a superintendent from Amreli, Jagdish Patel. One of them forced Paladia to transfer the digital coins to his wallet. The officers were charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including kidnapping, extortion, illegal detention and some provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Bhatt named Kotadiya in the case, claiming he was also involved in the crime. The CID took notice and registered a case of kidnapping and extortion against the latter after the investigation.

Further investigation in the case has revealed that the two had earlier kidnapped Bitconnect employees and extorted digital currencies from them. The loot included 2,256 Bitcoins and 11,000 Litecoins, along with 14.50 crore rupees. Bitconnect is another scam that took away over 1,500 crores from thousands of investors.

Kotadiya is a former state lawmaker from BJP, the ruling party in Gujarat. He won from Dhari in Amreli but did not contest the 2017 elections. He has courted controversy earlier too. As a member of the Patidar community, he openly supported the Patidar Movement for reservation and their leader Hardik Patel, who was charged with sedition. The cases have since been withdrawn.

He also claimed to have denied Ram Nath Kovind’s bid for the presidential poll. Kovind was an NDA candidate, a multiparty coalition headed by the BJP.

The post Ex-BJP MLA Declared an Absconder in Bitcoin Extortion Case appeared first on [blokt] - Blockchain, Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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