Six held for looting bizman on pretext of selling Bitcoin

NEW DELHI: A law graduate, his girlfriend and other associates were arrested for robbing a businessman of Rs 36 lakh by pretending to be Bitcoin traders, Delhi Police said on Saturday.

Police said that the victim had registered his complaint more than four months after he was looted by one Aditya Rajput, his girlfriend Karishma, and six others, as he was unsure whether or not the use of Bitcoin was legal in the country.

In August, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police had received a complaint from a Delhi-based businessman who alleged that a few people claiming to be Bitcoin dealers robbed him of Rs 36 lakh cash.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajesh Deo said that the victim had received a call some months ago from Karishma, who introduced herself as a Bitcoin dealer, after he had uploaded his information on a website localbitcoins.com, showing interest in purchasing the digital currency.

The complainant wished to make the payment online through zebpay.com, an e-wallet website. However, the woman convinced him to pay cash in order to get a more lucrative deal on the Bitcoins.

On April 7, the complaint reached V3S Mall near Nirman Vihar Metro station to meet Karishma for the transaction. However, once Karishma confirmed to her associates that he had the cash, they abducted him in a Scorpio car and took him to flat in Vaishali in Ghaziabad.

The accused persons then beat the complainant up, robbed him of the cash and threatened him with dire consequences if he complained to the police.

Based on the victim's complaint, a team led by ACP Sanjay Sehrawat conducted in Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and nearby areas. In different raids, all six accused were arrested.

The prime accused were identified as Yashashvi Sharma, a law graduate (alias Aditya Rajput), and his girlfriend Priya Thakur (alias Karishma).

Their associates were identified as Sandeep Chauhan, Devender Chauhan, Karamvir Singh and Kunal Sharma.

The accused persons disclosed that they used the proceeds of their robberies to settle their loans.

They also revealed that the gang is headed by one Amandeep Singh, a bankrupt property dealer and resident of Sector-1, Ghaziabad.

The accused also admitted to two other dacoities of Rs 28 lakh and Rs 8.5 lakh, by transferring the Bitcoin from the wallet of their targets into their own accounts at gunpoint after abducting the victims.