On Friday, the state prosecution informed a special court that Amit M. Bharadwaj, a prime accused in the multi-crore cryptocurrency fraud, had created 84,617 user identities (IDs) and had received investments worth 82,132 bitcoins.
This information was provided to the court by the state prosecution. At the hearing of a plea for an extension of the police custody remand for Amit and his brother Vivek, another prime accused in the case, district government pleader Ujjwala Pawar told special judge JT Utpat that “the distribution of these bitcoins is under investigation as a part of the case registered by the city police’s cybercrime cell with the Nigdi police.”
Vivek is another prime accused in the case. Amit is one of the prime accused in the case The court decided to keep the Bharadwaj brothers in custody until May 3, so their remand was extended.
Hemant V Suryawanshi, Hemant C Bhope, and Pankaj S Adlakha were remanded to the custody of the Dattawadi police until May 5 as part of the other case involving cryptocurrency fraud that was registered by the cyber crime cell with the Dattawadi police.
This was an order issued by the special court. In a related development, this court also ordered the remand of three other accused individuals.
Police inspector Manisha Zende, the investigating officer, submitted to the court a couple of remand reports in relation to the Bharadwaj brothers and the three other accused.
Pawar stated that the police wanted to investigate a share purchase agreement worth Rs 2,000 crore that Amit had executed with one Rajesh Satija in October 2016 and paid Rs 5 crore to the latter as a part of this deal. Pawar stated that this was in addition to tracing the distribution of the bitcoins, which was the primary focus of the investigation.
Why hasn’t anyone heard from Amit Bharadwaj of GainBitcoin?
Investors distributed a newspaper clipping that contained a proclamation made by the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi regarding Ajay Bharadwaj and three other individuals who are believed to be hiding from authorities and were ordered to turn themselves in.
Is Amit Bharadwaj also attempting to evade capture or flee from the investigators who are currently looking for him? The allegations are debunked by his attorney, Deepak Prakash, who also defends some of the other defendants in the case. “The order of the court is being followed exactly by our company.”
As a result, does Amit Bharadwaj comply with the directives of the Supreme Court and report every Monday that he is present at the Shalimar Bagh Police Station? Shalimar Bagh’s ACP Krishna Kumar Tyagi and SHO Rajendra Singh Gurjar confirmed to Inc42. “In accordance with the order issued by the court, he reports to the local police station on a weekly basis and dutifully signs his presence.”
Tyagi stated the following regarding Amit Bharadwaj’s cooperation with the investigation: “Only the team doing the investigation can speak on the issue. The Shalimar Bagh police team are not doing any investigation; they are simply following the court’s order.”
Nisha Raisoni, a victim of the GainBitcoin Ponzi scheme, is being represented by Advocate Ameya Dange, along with 16 other investors. These investors are all from the city of Pune. Dange is anticipating that the Pune District Court will shortly formulate the charges that will be brought against Amit Bharadwaj and the other defendants.
According to Sambhaji Kadam, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Pune Police Department, who spoke with Inc42, “It was only the Pune Police who recovered Bitcoin from Amit Bharadwaj and Co.” The chargesheets have already been submitted by our team. It’s up to the judge to decide what happens next.”
Ameya Dange is going to represent these investors in front of the Supreme Court as well. The attorney stated to Inc42 that the Supreme Court will now hear the matter on November 19, and that they will present their arguments against the defendant being granted bail at that time.
Dange argued that it was unlikely that it would be possible to combine all of the cases that have been brought against Amit Bharadwaj. “Even though the mode of operation of the Bharadwaj cases in each of the different FIRs is the same, the other accused, as well as their victims in each of these cases, are unique.”
The passport of Amit Bhardwaj has been handed over to the Registrar of the Supreme Court in the meantime.
Attorneys Gaurav Jachak, Bipin Patole, and Dhairyasheel Patil argued that the accused had already provided the investigating officer with information regarding user IDs and crypto wallets, and that the agreements referred to by the prosecution had nothing to do with the crime in question. They also stated that the information about user IDs and crypto wallets had been provided by the accused.
In spite of this, Judge Utpat issued the following ruling: “Considering the gravity and magnitude of the offence and the reasons given in the remand report, I think, the investigating officer must get time for investigation.” As a result, Accused No. 6 and 7, also known as Amit and Vivek, have been remanded to the custody of the police until May 3.”
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