3 persons booked for bitcoin fraud of Rs 3 crore in Vadodara

A Vadodara-based businessman has filed a complaint that three persons hailing from New Delhi and Pune duped him of Rs 3 crore in a transaction involving over 64 bitcoins, a senior police official said Sunday.

Deputy Police Commissioner Jaydeepsinh Jadeja said that, based on the complaint by Pravesh Nike, a case had been registered against Amit and Ajay Bharadwaj from Delhi and Hemant Bhopena from Pune.

Nike claimed that the three, whom he met through an online group trading in bitcoins, reneged on their promise to give a return of ten per cent on bitcoin transactions.

He alleged that the three also removed the word "bitcoin" from the agreement documents signed by both parties and replaced it with the term "cryptocurrency".

Jadeja said that a case had been registered against the three under relevant sections of the IPC and Information Technology Act and the probe was underway.

Bitcoin, a kind of virtual currency, is not legal tender as per Union government laws and therefore have no regulatory permission or protection in India.