Bitcoin extortion case: accused police officer arrested

A police inspector, accused of extorting Bitcoins and cash from a builder, was nabbed by the city Crime Branch today.

Inspector Anant Patel, the accused, was attached to the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Amreli district when the alleged crime took place.

A team of Ahmedabad Crime Branch arrested him from a pan shop in Adalaj area, said Assistant Commissioner of Police C N Rajput.

"Based on a tip-off, we nabbed Anant Patel today. He had tonsured his head and taken to wearing a cap to conceal the identity.

"We handed him over to the CID-Crime which is handling the case," Rajput said.

Patel is one of the nine policemen from Amreli who have been named as accused in the case by the CID-Crime, which has formed a Special Investigation Team for probe.

Recently, two police constables of Amreli LCB along with a middleman were arrested by the CID-Crime in the case. The SIT was looking for Patel for the last two weeks.

On April 8, the CID-Crime registered a case against Patel and others for allegedly kidnapping Surat-based builder Shailesh Bhatt and extorting Bitcoins, a popular crypto-currency, and some cash from him.

They were booked under IPC sections for kidnapping, extortion, illegal detention, as well as under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Bhatt had alleged that he was kidnapped from near a hotel in Gandhinagar by the accused policemen on February 9.

He was taken to a farmhouse near the state capital where inspector Anant Patel beat him and forced him to digitally transfer 200 Bitcoins worth crores of rupees, the builder alleged.

The exchange rate of one Bitcoin is over Rs 5.40 lakh at present, as per the websites which track the prices of crypto-currencies.