Bail to bitcoin baiter against 15 lakh deposit

In what could be seen as a new trend emerging in the apex court while dealing with economic offenders, the bench allowed bail to an accused in the bitcoin scam on Saturday, in lieu of hefty amounts of cash as a security deposit — Rs 15 lakh, to be precise.

The court was hearing the bail petition of Akash Kantilal Sancheti, accused of duping several persons of Rs 42 lakh. The first complaint against him was lodged by a Pune entrepreneur, who claimed she had invested Rs 13 lakh in Sancheti's business since August 2017. He was arrested in January 2018.

On Friday, his bail petition came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices RF Nariman and V Ramasubramanian. His lawyer, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, submitted that Sancheti has been behind bars for 20 months and the kingpin of the scam is already out on bail.

The bench directed Sancheti to deposit Rs 13 lakh with the registry of the apex court within six months. In addition, it told him to furnish a bail bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the Special Judge, Pune. The court deposited the Rs 13 lakh in an interest-bearing short term fixed deposit in a nationalized bank.

Sancheti, an engineering graduate ran a software company before he began trading in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Initially, his investors reaped handsome returns, but over a period of time, they realized the fraud as they received neither the invested amount nor the profit. Sancheti was named in three other cases of fraud in Pune.

The top court restrained Sancheti from committing any offence of the same nature or influence witnesses while out on bail. His passport remains with the Supreme Court and he cannot use any digital wallet for trading or mining cryptocurrencies. In addition, he will present himself every week at the local police station in Pune and co-operate with the Enforcement Directorate in their investigations. At the time of arrest, police recovered 24 bitcoins worth Rs 2.09 crore on him and attached his bank account, containing Rs four lakh in fixed deposits.

In April 2019, the Supreme Court granted bail to Amit Bhardwaj and his brother Vivek, both residents of Delhi, who started the company GainBitcoin. The firm attracted global buyers and crores of rupees in exchange for bitcoins. The Indian government does not accept bitcoin as a legal tender, and several cases were filed in Delhi, Maharashtra and Chandigarh by the duped investors. Amit was granted medical bail, after depositing a whopping Rs 10 crore within six months as surety, while his brother paid Rs one crore as security.