He is accused of masterminding the plan to extort bitcoins worth Rs 12 crore from Surat-based builder Shailesh Bhatt's friend, and abducting him and his friend
Nalin Kotadiya, former Gujarat MLA from Dhair, was arrested on Sunday from Amalner in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district in an extortion and abduction case.
He is accused of masterminding the plan to extort bitcoins worth Rs 12 crore from Surat-based builder Shailesh Bhatt's friend, and abducting him and his friend.
"He was arrested from railway quarters at Amalner station, which is under construction," said Deepen Bhadran, DCP crime branch.
Other than the former legislator, former Amreli district superintendent of police Jagdish Patel, police inspector Anant Patel and eight others have been arrested in the case so far.
Builder Bhatt had lodged a complaint with the state home department, alleging that police personnel from Amreli had kidnapped him and his business partner Kirit Paladia from Gandhinagar on February 9 this year and extorted bitcoins worth Rs 12 crore owned by Paladia. Bhatt had alleged that Kotadiya was part of the entire conspiracy.
The case was later transferred to the Central Investigation Department (Crime).
The CID officers investigating the case had filed an FIR against Kotadiya for kidnapping and extortion.
Kotadiya was issued summons twice by the CID but he skipped both. On May 14, a report on his arrest warrant was submitted to the court by CID officials, and on May 17, the sessions court issued a non-bailable warrant against him.
Later, the CID sleuths launched a search operation to trace him in 25 suspect locations in Ahmedabad, Surat and Amreli but they did not find him.
After the failed manhunt, on June 18, the CID moved court, stating that Kotadiya had failed to turn up for questioning despite repeated summons.
The court accepted CID's application and proclaimed the former legislator an offender, and directed him to appear before it within 30 days.
A DRAMATIC ARREST
- Former MLA Kotadiya had been escaping law enforcement officials for quite some time. When Ahmedabad Crime Branch sleuths finally caught up with him on Sunday afternoon, he was practising yoga. When he espied the unexpected visitors, he was shocked. "Finally, you found me. How did you know?" the onetime lawmaker reportedly said.
- He then asked for "some more time" from the police as he had to "complete some work", said a crime branch officer.
- Before arresting Kotadiya, the officers allowed him to get dressed. At around 8.30 pm on Sunday, the Crime Branch handed Kotadiya over to the CID (Crime) in Ahmedabad.
ROLE OF KOTADIYA IN BITCOIN EXTORTION
- Kotodiya was the mastermind behind the kidnapping and extorting bitcoin from Bhatt
- CID officials recovered several call records, messages, which shows Kotadiya, had a direct connection with the Amerli SP Jagdish Patel and LCB inspector Anant Patel which were made on February 9 morning when the kidnapping and extortion of Bhatt and Paladiya happened.
- From the extorted Rs12Crore worth bitcoin from Bhatt, Kotadiya got 15 per cent share which was approx Rs 66 lakh
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