The officers have arrested Jagdish Patel (Amreli SP), Anant Patel (Inspector of LCB), Kirit Paladiya (Partner of Shailesh Bhatt), Ketan Patel (Lawyer), and two Amreli constables
In the investigation of the bitcoin extortion and kidnapping case, six accused have been nabbed till now and around Rs 7.4 crore has been recovered by the CID. The 11 other accused in the case are absconding and search is on to nab them.
The officers have arrested Jagdish Patel (Amreli SP), Anant Patel (Inspector of LCB), Kirit Paladiya (Partner of Shailesh Bhatt), Ketan Patel (Lawyer), and two Amreli constables. On the other hand, Nalin Kotadiya (former MLA), Jatin Patel (brother of Ketan Patel), Naman Kotadiya (nephew of Nalin Kotadiya), Navneet (Relative of Kotadiya), Dharmendra Pawar (Amreli Head Constable) and six other Amreli Police are wanted in the case and search for them is on.
According to police,176 bitcoins worth Rs 9.45 crore were extorted form Bhatt's bitcoin wallet and the main conspirator distributed 15 per cent of the money to Nalin Kotadiya, Ketan Patel and Jatin Patel and another 15 per cent to the police officers.
During the investigation, a total of Rs 7.4Crore of the extortion money was recovered from Anant Patel (Rs2 lakh), Nanku Lavaria, a friend and custodian of Kotadiya (Rs 25 lakh), and Kirit Paladiya (Rs 7.2 crore). Rs 2.05 crore is yet to be recovered from the accused.
Dipankar Trivedi, DIG of CID (crime), said, "We suspect that some extortion money is with lawyer Ketan Patel and the remaining of Kotadiya's money is with Jatin Patel, who is absconding at the moment. During Ketan's interrogation, he stated that Jatin has some medical issue and has gone out of the country for his treatment. We do not believe his statement and have started a search for him."
To look for Kotadiya, the CID sent three teams to Amreli, after they came to know that a letter was faxed from a PCO located in Amreli and Kotadiya had called CID officials from an Amreli number.
"It was revealed during investigation that two men were asked to send the letter through a fax from a PCO in Amreli. We have been keeping a close watch on the area as we believe he is in hiding somewhere there," Trivedi added.
IN HIDING
Investigation revealed that two men were asked to send the letter through a fax from a PCO in Amreli. We have been keeping a close watch on the area as we believe he is in hiding there.
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