In what is perhaps the first case of extortion involving the crypto currency bitcoin, Gujarat police CID (Crime) has booked a police Inspector and nine other policemen for allegedly forcing a Surat-based builder and real estate player to part with 200 bitcoins, worth ₹12 crore.
The police booked them after a complaint was received that Inspector Anant Patel abducted the businessman Shailesh Bhatt and forced him to transfer the bitcoins from his mobile wallet. Mr. Bhatt reportedly trades in crypto currencies. His business partner Kirit Paladiya is said to have warned him that he was under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate. On February 11, Mr. Paladiya called Mr. Bhatt for a meeting in Gandhinagar. As they were talking, a couple of police vehicles arrived at the scene and they were both taken to a farm house where Mr. Bhatt was asked to transfer the bitcoins to escape the probe.
The police lodged an FIR naming 11 persons, including a private individual who reportedly played a fixer between the businessman and the police.
