Bitcoin trading fraud: Six arrested

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 30

The police have arrested six persons for cheating people on the pretext of trading in bitcoin (crypto currency) and lakhs of rupees and stolen articles were recovered from their possession, said a police official.

In August, a Delhi-based businessman filed a complaint that some people claiming themselves as Bitcoin dealers robbed him of Rs 36 lakh after abducting him from the Nirman Vihar Metro Station near Laxmi Nagar.

During preliminary inquiry, it was found that several crypto currencies are being traded namely Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero and others which had emerged after the 2008 financial collapse of the international market, said the official.

All the trading is being done online through various e-wallets such as Zebpay.com. So, the seller and buyer do not come in touch with each other physically.

In the present case, the complainant had uploaded his information on a local website localbitcoins.com. Accordingly he received a call from Karishma Rajput who introduced herself as a bitcoin dealer. During their interaction the complainant showed his interest to buy bitcoin which were then available at the rate of Rs 72,000 per BTC. The complainant was interested to make the payments online through Zebpay.com but Rajput lured him to deal in cash by reducing the price and making the deal more lucrative, the official added.

On July 7, she, along with his accomplices, called the complainant at VS-3 Mall, Metro Station Nirman Vihar, with money. They abducted the complainant in his Scorpio car on the pretext of taking him to the client and instead took him to a flat at Vaishali, where he was robbed for Rs 36 lakh, the official said.

Modus operandi of the criminals was carried out and it was revealed that the accused are using numerous mobile numbers to contact their prey. During analysis, the call records of the suspects were identified.

Raids were carried out in Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and nearby areas. On September 2, four members of the gang — Karamvir Singh, Sandeep, Devendra Chauhan and Kunal Sharma were arrested.

Two more accused Priya Thakur and Yashashvi Sharma were arrested on September 27, said DCP, Crime (ISC), Delhi.