ED raids Raipur home amid charges of cryptocurrency use

RAIPUR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted a search at the residence of Gaurav Mehta, an audit firm employee in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, in connection with its investigation into an alleged cryptocurrency scam linked to the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The case has triggered controversy due to accusations against high-profile political leaders.

Mehta is a consultant who helped the authorities in several cryptocurrency fraud probes in the past. His name emerged after former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil raised allegations of money being diverted from a 2018 cryptocurrency scam into influencing this year’s Maharashtra poll.

As Patil pointed out, Mehta was working with Pune police to investigate a crypto scam of Rs 6,600 crore involving the infamous Bitcoin trader Amit Bharadwaj.

In the course of the investigation, according to press reports, one of the hardware wallets containing Bitcoins was seized, but Patil had complained that the second wallet was illegally used, allegedly on the orders of then Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta.

Patil further alleged that these ill-gotten Bitcoins were syphoned into election campaigns. He claimed that top political leaders, including one belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the state Congress president, had been canvassing funds related to this scam.

NCP leader Supriya Sule has hotly denied the allegations and dismissed the audio clip that allegedly implicated her as fabricated.

“The voice attributed to me in the clip is not mine. These claims are baseless and politically motivated,” Sule stated.

The controversy comes to the fore amid heightened political tensions, as similar allegations had been made against Maharashtra BJP leader Vinod Tawde, accusing him of involvement in a “cash for votes” scandal. Tawde and the BJP have strongly denied charges.